The Iron Ring
by Jerry Z.Z
Summary: Hiccup got imprisoned by Dagur on the island of Berserk, and it's time for the Riders to rescue and save him. To make things worse, Berk's ally turned their back toward them, so they needed to face Dagur's reinforced armada on their own with their dragons. This book has a T-plus rating if I didn't misinterpret my own story. And this book can also be found on Wattpad.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first time writing on Fanfiction, and I'm not used to this system yet, but I will. The chapters will be short, at least less than 3,000 words.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

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"You do remember when you and your friends locked me up in that disgusting prison? Where I had to suffer those smelly fish and crazy guards? It's time for you to experience the same thing." Dagur stood besides the prison cell deep in the Island of Berserk.

Hiccup Haddock, the future chief of Berk, lied in the prison cell. Blood covered his face and exposed skin, his flying suit got badly damaged, leather stripes got cut apart, and shoulder armors got some deep cracks. Dagur and his men put extra security handcuffs on Hiccup's hands just to be sure that he wouldn't do anything "bad" in the cell either.

The cell had an uncomfortable and simple bed and a chair, and walls were made of heavy stones. It had only one small window, which only a Terrible Terror could climb through, and it was secured by arm-sized metal bars.

"Dagur, you don't know what you are doing. " Hiccup said in a weak voice.

"I don't? "Dagur laughed, "maybe you guys should make up your minds before you threw me into the Outcast prison."

The prison that Hiccup was in was called the Tartarus, the underworld from Greek Mythology. The Berserkers named it Tartarus because nobody could escape from this prison, not even with the help from dragons. The whole building was fire-proof, and the field around it was filled with crossbows, trebuchets, ballistas, and of course, strong and brutal Berserk warriors.

Hiccup couldn't remember how Dagur knocked him out, when he was sailing on his boat, someone jumped down from the air and landed on the stern of his boat. That was a big mistake, Hiccup didn't bring Toothless with him on that stupid sea-safari.

Dagur bursted into laughter, then he walked outside of the prison with his double-sided ax in his hand.

Hiccup turned his head and stared through the window, where the pale white moon was hanging in the air.


	2. Chapter 2

**This is the second chapter. I think I know how to appropriately edit my story on the website by now.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Chapter 2:

Savage threw a piece of molten cabbage through the bars of the prison cell door, "Lunchtime, fool, have some veggies."

Hiccup's prosthetic leg got badly damaged when Dagur kidnapped him on the boat in the middle of nowhere, and now he couldn't even stand up easily on his own. He thought about escaping, but under this scenario, not even a Deadly Nadder could escape.

The temperature could drop to 30 degrees in the night with razor-like winds. Most Berserkers would wear a heavy fur coat when the took a walk in the night, but Hiccup had nothing but a not-warming leather flight suit to keep him from cold.

The cabbage landed on his torso, right on a new, palm-sized blood cut made by one of the bludgeons hanging in the guards' room of Prison Tartarus.

The unbearable pain went through his nerves, yet the pain that almost destroyed him. He quickly but painfully removed the cabbage from his cut and threw it into the corner.

Savage stopped by the door, and he stared at Hiccup while he shivered from the cold and pain on the floor of the cell. He found a thin blanket in the guards' room and tried to throw it into the cell.

"What do you think you are doing?" A deep voice came behind Savage.

"Sir, I was trying to give him some blanket to keep from the cold." Savage moved to the side.

Dagur walked towards the cell door. Meanwhile Savage was wearing a dark brown furry jacket with a 1-foot long sharp sword in his belt, but Dagur was wearing only a T-shirt.

"He doesn't need any warmth," said Dagur, he took the blanket from Savage's hand violently, "He is the great Hiccup Haddock the Third, he can solve any obstacles. Didn't he killed the Red Death? "

"He did, sir, "said Savage carefully, "but if he freezes to death, it won't give us any good, Berk will start another war against us. "

"No matter what we do next, Stoick will do anything to rescue his son and destroy us, but he is important to our next move," Dagur said with an evil smile, then he threw the blanket into the cell. The light blanket slowly and softly landed on Hiccup's blood-covered body.

On Berk

Toothless wasn't as energetic as before. He missed Hiccup, and he couldn't believe that hiccup left him on Berk and went to some sea safari on his own as well. Toothless crowed up in his bed in Hiccup's hut, he put his head on his red prosthetic wing and fell asleep.

"In order to avoid the arrows, do a barrel roll before destroying enemy's ship. Do not take any chances of the arrows, because you will never know whether it's a dragon root arrow," Astrid said as she and Stormfly presented the move in front of the Dragon Riders in the arena.

The roof of the arena got removed because they didn't need stuff like that. The roof was meant to keep the dragons from escaping, but now Berkian were friends and allies to dragons. Also, an open and free arena was a key part of the training.

"Why are we still practicing this kind of stuff again? You told us thousand times already," said Snotlout, leaning on the left wing of Hookfang insolently, " and, now we defeated the Roman invaders from the south and the traitors from the north. We made peace with every singe tribes and forces in the Archipelago."

"You know what, Astrid, Snotlout got a point," said Fishlegs. He threw a piece of rock into Meatlugs' open mouth, "we had been fighting against hunters, soldiers, and other devil-like dragon trappers for 3 whole years, and finally we could get some rest. Meatlug and I planned to build a children-dragon communication program on Berk..."

"A children-dragon communication program? What a stupid name." Tuffnut interrupted him, "You should name it 'The Double-Headed Dragon Fishing Program'."

"How is that suppose to teach an 8-years old to bond with a dragon? "Questioned Fishlegs.

"I don't know, At least someone will back me up with it, right sis?" Tuffnut looked at Ruffnut.

"Sure, "Ruffnut was busy playing head-bang games with Barf and Belch she didn't even know what was going on.

"Fine, "said Astrid wearily, "If you guys don't want to practice and be ready for a battle, I will definitely laugh at every single one of you when a dragon root arrow takes you out."

"Ok, take it easy, Miss. Second-in-Command," said Snotlout, "Wait, when can we call you Mrs. instead of Miss. ?"

"Are you questioning Astrid when will she get married with Hiccup?" Said Fishlegs, he paused, "I want to know as well."

"Ugh," Astrid rolled her eyes, "Let's get out of here girl before these muttonheads drive me insane. "

She patted Stormfly's head as Stormfly flew into the sky like a whispering death rise from the ground.

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 **I made a decision of my story, each chapter will be much shorter than other fanfictions, but I will continue updating the story until the end.**


	3. Chapter 3

**The story looks pretty good to me, I used some help here and there to fix my story. Please leave a comment below and click "favorite", thank you.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Chapter 3:

"I don't think you should doubt your decision of passing your position to Hiccup," said Gobber. He and Stoick were sitting on one of the bleachers in the Great Hall. Gobber had a cup of beer in front of him, and he was trying to take it off from his prosthetic arm, but it got stuck, "Come on, every day!"

"You think he is not ready? I was preparing for the power-transfer speech and the retirement speech," Stoick said thoughtfully, running his hand along his long, brown beard, "I wanted to quit the job the second day when I got elected as the chief of Berk. You remember?"

"Of course. You were punching in the air and cursing those redundant and tedious paper works."

"I know, and I can't believe that I came through all of those decades. Preparing for the winter, filling up the granary, taking care of the sea, making treaties with other tribes, fighting against our enemies, and killing dragons… Well, that job stopped a couple of years ago."

"He knows how to lead a group of Vikings. I saw how he organized his fela dragon riders during the Battle of Woden's Sea. He is an experienced warrior and dragon trainer, or maybe the best dragon trainer in the whole Archipelago."

"I was in the battle as well, and I was the one who dispatched the Riders to the battle. But leading a small company isn't the same thing as ruling a whole village,"Stoick said.

"You don't have to worry about him. Astrid can assist him as well. She is pretty responsible and downright," Gobber patted Stoick on the back, "Well, so long for the talking, and I have to prepare for the fishing. We are running out of some fine deep-sea fish for our growing dragon population."

"Where is Hiccup?"Stoick asked abruptly.

"Who knows. He is on some boating, and he even left Toothless back on Berk."

"That's weird. He never leaves Toothless on Berk alone."

Astrid carefully opened Hiccup's hut's wooden door. Everything was in place. His shield was on his work table, some tools were in the drawers, and his own wings stood in the corner of his work area. Everything seemed to be covered in dirt, yet no signs of people entering in the past few day. Except some footprints made by Toothless. Hiccup taught Toothless how to open and close the door on his own so that he could go back to bed when Hiccup was doing some weapon testing on the field.

She walked around his working area, where he invented all those brilliant weapons and wings. She put her hand on the wooden work table, and she could feel the marks on it made by cutting blades and hammers. Oh, and the hand-sized heart symbol with his and her name under it which she carved it when she was in his work area a couple of weeks ago.

She walked slowly up the solid stairs. Most stairs on Berk were unstable because the weight of the Vikings, and after the dragons came in, workers must repair stairs every day in order for the village to run fluently. But in Hiccup's personal hut, the weight of himself and Toothless was not even close to break those fine stairs Gobber made years ago.

Toothless was awake when she reached the upper stairs, and he turned his head and stared at her with his grass-green eyes.

"Oh, boy," She sat down beside him, "you must feel lonely without Hiccup around, right? I can't even stand a minute without Stormfly."

Toothless the dragon groaned and moved his head closer to her as a sign of welcome and agree.

Astrid didn't bring her axe with her this time because she didn't want Toothless to be so stressed out. Two weeks ago Astrid almost chopped his ear down when she was practicing axe throwing strategy.

"I wonder when will he say 'will you marry me' or something like that," she put her right hand on Toothless' scale-covered head while he reached over to her and placed his head on her laps, "I'm pretty excited and nervous for that, you know, the first time in my life. Hopefully, he will make up his mind after his sea voyage, or he wants me to say it to him? I'll torture him if that's his idea."

"Man, you are heavy. How many fish did you eat today?" Astrid tried to lift Toothless' head, but she failed.

Toothless didn't respond, and he turned his body and tried to find a more comfortable position, but he accidentally slapped Astrid's face with his long ear.

"Hey, watch it," Astrid laughed.

"Those two should get married right away, and I don't want to see them 'physically flirting' each other in front of the public," said Snotlout when the Riders were walking from the arena, "Just look at them during the Battle of Woden's Sea."

"They will continue 'physically flirting' each other in front of the public after they get married, but I think that's sweet. And, I didn't witness a thing during the Battle of Woden's Sea," shrugged Fishlegs.

"Wow, that was honest," shouted Snotlout, and he jumped in front of Fishlegs, "We all saw Hiccup gave Astrid multiple hot kisses when they destroyed the Commander's ship."

"To be more exciting," interrupted by Tuffnut, "They spent the night before the battle together in the cove, not even with Toothless and Stormfly. Who knows what happened."

"How did that affect you, Snotlout? You still have this thought that you will win Astrid over Hiccup? Or sweep her off her feet? Even Gustav stopped flirting with her. You know, that wimpy kid?" said Ruffnut, "Just look at her, she can't even talk appropriately without Hiccup around soothing her, and I believe that now she is wandering around in Hiccup's personal hut, personal hut."

"No, I won't do that. Why would I do that?" said Snotlout.

"Because you are a muttonhead."

"Ok, fine, I admit it that I still have some feelings about her," Snotlout gave up, "but he will never know."

"Oh, he knows, that boy is a wizard. He knows everything, including your little dirty mind."


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't know what to talk about, so let's just continue on with the story. Don't forget to leave a comment below to help me improve the story, thank you.**

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Chapter 4:

In the past few weeks, Hiccup became Dagur's punching bag or target dummy until last night he got nearly wasted. He didn't have the power to fight back when an arrow broke his right arm. The condition of Tartarus was even worse than the most disgusting place on Berk. He had only a small slice of baked fish in days and only enough water to keep him alive. He had uncountable cuts and injuries on his skin and he believed that Dagur broke at least 5 of his bones.

Dagur struck Hiccup's backbone the 17th time of the day with his wooden bludgeon. Hiccup flew across the air and landed in the corner.

"I… don't know… why you want… to break me so badly…" said Hiccup. His voice was weak and low, fresh blood continued dripping down from a 2-inch long cut on his face. He was lying on the floor in the guards' room, with at least six big, strong, armor-wearing Berserker guards stood around him, who were holding different weapons in their hands. Some torches on the wall lighted the room.

"Two reasons. One, for fun, and two, so that we can take Berk," Dagur stopped his "hitting and punching".

"I'm not the chief yet. It won't give you any good to kill me. Gobber or Astrid can take over the job, and they may do a better job than me."

"Sometimes you are thinking too simple, Hiccup. Breaking you is only one part of our plan."

"Does Heather know your plan?"

"Yes of course, but she doesn't know this part of the plan."

"Heather will send you to Valhalla if you kill me. I guess."

"No, she won't. She is too good of a sister."

"But you are too bad of a brother," said Hiccup, trying to embarrass Dagur, "you won't even stand a chance in front of Berk."

"Please, Savage, let him shut up," Dagur lost his temper.

"Yes, sir." As Dagur stepped aside, Savage picked up Hiccup from the ground, put a half -nelson about his neck and dragged him along the dark prison corridor. Hiccup didn't resist, and he didn't even have the energy to break through Savage's metal-like arms.

They didn't need to handcuff Hiccup today because he couldn't even walk without someone holding on to him. Savage stopped in front of the prison cell, and he took out the key from his pocket and opened the metal door.

"Make yourself comfortable," he said. Then he threw Hiccup into the cell just like throwing a sandbag.

A current of red blood flown out of his mouth when he landed heavily on the floor and knocked over a chair. Savage locked the door again, then he looked at Hiccup through the bars. He shook his head and walked away.

Hiccup turned his head and looked through the tiny window and he could see the guards patrolling around the prison. He knew that he wasn't the only prisoner in Tartarus, but others seemed to receive much better treatment than Hiccup. They got warm food, exercise time on the fenced field, and comfortable beds. He was the most dangerous character to the Berserkers, so he got scarcely food, no exercise time, no comfortable bed. The only time when he could step outside from his poor cell was when Dagur and his men beat him like he was a punching bag.

He regretted his action, but it was too late. The Berkians needed at least two weeks to realize that he was gone way too long. He wanted Toothless to lick his face again, or at least keep him busy by wiggling around him.

And Astrid, he would never forget her blonde hair, blue eyes, and her warrior soul covered by her tender body. She was an angle to him. She will definitely chop Dagur into million pieces if she found out what he did to him. He recalled multiple times when he saved Astrid from danger, and then he would carry the unconscious Astrid back to Berk, and laid her on his bed, and waited for her to wake up.

The things that helped Hiccup endured the pain were Toothless and Astrid' s figure in his mind. Otherwise he would've given in already.

Few days later

"He should be back already," Astrid stood on the cliff, "That was too long for a sea voyage."

"You don't have to care of your boy Hiccup. He can take care of himself," Fishlegs said while Meatlug stood beside him.

"Something isn't right. Toothless worried sick about him. You know, he can sense things."

"Then you should send a search party if you still care about him."

"Are you questioning our relationships?"

"No offense, but, there is a possibility that he got lost or got attacked by pirates."

"By pirates?" Astrid asked.

"Johan and other patrol Riders reported more than 20 pirate attacks, and even one of Alvin's ship with 20 soldiers got ambushed. He also said that those pirates usually seize metal products."

"Who has the ability to do so?"

"The Romans, the Berserkers, the Southern people, or the traitor tribes. The possibility is endless."

"We defeated the Romans and the traitors, but the South is our ally, at least for now," Astrid said, she fell deep into thinking, staring blank into the ocean.

"The Berserkers. We defeated them years ago, and now we even trade with each other, but they are the only remaining tribe who could cause those attacks."

"Maybe we should visit them?"

"If it's for Hiccup, we would trigger them and might start a war. Let's sweep the Archipelago first."

"The whole Archipelago? That'll take at least three fortnights."

"Do we have another choice?"

"OK, I'll round up other Riders, Milady."

"Only Hiccup can call me that."

"But it sounds great."

Astrid held up her axe at Fishlegs, and he quickly gave in, holding his two hands in the air.

"Fine, Hiccup's privilege, not mine."

"Why are we doing this again?" Tuffnut shouted across the air.

"To find Hiccup and those pirates," Fishlegs shouted back.

"Am I the only one who is staring at an empty ocean?"

Below the dragons was the blue, endless, tranquil ocean with different sized islands spreading all over it. No pirates, no battles, not even a fish or dragon.

"This is pointless," said Snotlout, "It's impossible to find a Viking from here, and you can't even see a tree clearly."

"Let's spread out, cover more ground," Astrid said, "Fishlegs, you'll go north. Ruffnut and Tuffnut search the west. Snotlout you search the east, and I'll go south."

"Hey Astrid," said Snotlout, flying closer and closer to Astrid, "You may need a Viking like this to aid you during the search, in case of pirates or wild insane dragons."

"Oh," replied Astrid indifferently.

"So…" Snotlout waited for her action.

"Look, if you want to take Hiccup's place, I can tell you that that's impossible. Second of all, this is the 32nd time of your flirting just in this month. If you wanna die, I don't mind."

"It'll be my pleasure to die underneath your gorgeous axe."

Astrid rolled her eyes, she didn't know what came through that Viking, but she knew that if she don't stop him, he would continue on with it until he got tired of talking.

"Fine, we will search the south together," Astrid said, then she raised her tone, "But, no flirting whatsoever during the trip, or you go under the ocean."

"Yes, Milady."

"Ugh," groaned Astrid.

So a Deadly Nadder and a Monstrous Nightmare headed south with their riders on their backs, seeking a Viking called Hiccup.

What they didn't know was, a small island just several miles to the east where Snotlout was supposed to search, laid a small boat on its beach. The boat got badly damaged by some sort of metal weapons, and its mast got fractured, water from the wave poured in from cracked on the keel of the boat. A Viking helmet and a piece of flight suit laid there on the open deck of the boat.


	5. Chapter 5

**Happy Holidays, everyone. Christmas isn't far away from us, and the third How to Train Your Dragon movie as well.**

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Chapter 5:

Dagur wanted to incinerate Berk into splinters. To do this, he started regrouping an armada years ago. Under the assist of Savage, a traitor from Alvin, he produced the strongest naval force in the whole Archipelago.

His soldiers once served under his father, Oswald the Agreeable for many years, gained valuable battle experiences. Even the Outcasts couldn't stand a chance in front of them.

But he knew that his armada had a deadly weakness, the Dragon Riders of Berk.

"Those half-troll, cowardly cowering cuttlefish, miserable mollusks, disgusting pieces of eels," cursed Dagur, trying to control his temper, but he failed, "Worthless lizards!"

No matter how many times Dagur reinforced his ships, yet they acted like brittle glasses in front of the dragons. He could build a ship completely out of metal, but that was impossible. Most of the metal on Berserk was used for weapons and armors.

That's why he sent some ships acting like a group of pirates raiding merchants' boats in the Archipelago. He needed more supplies.

The Tartarus guards had enough weapons to arm five ships of soldiers, but those prisoners in Tartarus were so dangerous that he couldn't let his guard down.

The guards and the soldiers always had conflicts between them because of their jobs. The soldiers viewed the guards as "a group of doing-trash-and-claiming-themselves-heroes". The guards viewed the soldiers as "skinny cowards."

Hiccup recovered a little, at least no blood dripped down from his injuries. His resilient ability astounded Dagur. A normal Viking could be dead by now.

But "astounded" isn't the same as "stopped". Dagur still routinely dashed and collided Hiccup's body with his bludgeon. This time they didn't bother letting Hiccup get back on his feet. Dagur kicked right into Hiccup's belly after Hiccup fell to the ground.

Hiccup surprisingly stood up by himself. The guards looked at him with their mouths wide open, just like viewing the sun rising from the west. He rushed toward the door with unspeakable speed. The guard who was standing right next to the door didn't even stop him.

Nobody moved a muscle at that moment. A second ago he was being abused by Dagur, but right now he acted like some sort of Viking lighting bolt.

He ran toward the storage room with one of his hand covering his new cut on the shoulder. Dagur kept weapons in the storage room, so that was what he needed in order to escape.

Hiccup spent the last few nights trying to fix his metal prosthetic leg. Without a hammer that wasn't an easy job because he needed to reshape a piece of metal with nothing but his hands.

"STOP THAT ONE-LEGGED FOOL!" roared Dagur. He turned to Savage, "Lockdown the prison. Those muttonheads botched their job."

It was too late. Nobody was guarding the storage room at that moment, so Hiccup broke into the room's door without anyone stopping him. He took a sword from the shelf and headed to the front gate.

A guard showed up in front of him, and he stroked with his axe toward Hiccup's torso. Hiccup defended himself with the sword. The two weapons sent out an intense clangor when they met each other.

Hiccup's plan was a perilous move. He was too delicate and fragile after Dagur's abuse. Two reckless-looking guards with heavy armor obstructed his way after he injured the first guard. Another guard dived down from nowhere and knocked out Hiccup with his heavy body. The guard recaptured Hiccup's sword from his hand and handcuffed Hiccup immediately.

Two guards picked him up and dragged him back to Dagur. Hiccup relinquished his resistant after finding out that he was outnumbered.

They dropped Hiccup in front of Dagur and one guard kicked the back of his thigh that forced him to fell to his knee.

"Bravo, pure braveness," clapped Dagur ironically, "but what's the point? No dragons to help you, and no friends to save you. If you stayed here, at least you will live. But right now I have no choice but kill you."

Dagur withdrew his axe and placed the edge of the axe beside Hiccup's neck.

"Do whatever you want, but you'll never take Berk. You disgusting piece of shit," said Hiccup stoically.

Dagur's face turned red because of anger. He brought back his axe so that he would have enough strength to chop down Hiccup's head.

"What's going on over here?" A feminine voice came from the corridor.

"Nothing, sis," Dagur put away his axe with furious on his face, but he replaced it with a warm smile when the voice maker stepped into the room.

She was about five and a half feet tall wearing silver-like armors, and holding a double-edged axe in her right hand. Four soldiers followed behind her.

That was Heather, sister of chief Dagur, daughter of Oswald the Agreeable. She and Dagur held the appositive position on Berserk, so that means technically she was the chief as well.

The guards of Tartarus showed awe and respect to that young lady because they didn't want to mess with her. The last guard who tried to flirt with her got himself chopped into four pieces by her with an axe. They took a step back and put their weapons away.

Berserkers severely followed strict conventional rules. The chief was the chief, the leader was the leader, and the followers were followers.

Heather and Dagur shared a quick hug, and then she looked down at the blood-covered Hiccup.

"You found another punching bag?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's not easy to find a future chief as your punching bag or something," replied Dagur.

"I told you multiple times to not…" she couldn't find the right word, "hitting and punching a random person for fun. You held him to yourself for a long time, I can see that."

"But I couldn't control myself."

"So when you run out of Viking punching bags in the future you'll use me as well?"

"Uh…"

She leaned down to Hiccup and helped him to stand up. With the help from Heather, Hiccup merely stood on his feet, holding on to her shoulder as a support.

"Fine, do whatever you want with him. He is a piece of useless trash to me anyway. Give him a nice meal, a good room, find him a doctor, and make him your consort. Blah, blah, blah…"

Stoick recalled the Dragon Riders back on Berk when Astrid decided to launch another search mission.

"We need to postpone the search. Right now we'll start anticipating our trip to Berserk with our vital chief," said Fishlegs to Astrid.

"To Berserk? Why?"Astrid asked with confusion.

"He told me that he needs to sign a treaty or something with their new chief Dagur."

"You should keep me safe with those agile dragons throughout the trip, right? I might need some helpers to deal with those chaotic Berserkers " Stoick said.

"Yes, of course, chief," said Astrid. She became the acting leader of the Dragon Riders after the missing of Hiccup.

"I know what's in your mind, Astrid, but life goes on. I'm not feeling good as well. Look at me, Astrid, do you still believe in him?" Stoick put his hands on her shoulders.

"Of course," said Astrid abruptly. Then she realized what she had done because the rest of the Riders laughed at Snotlout in the background.

"He'll know it. He'll know that you still believe in him, and I believe that he has faith in you as well," Stoick said, and then he jumped onto Skullcrusher's back.

Heather wasn't Astrid, but they acted almost the same. Both were axe-lovers, and strong, energetic female Viking warriors. She lived in a house on a cliff overlooking the ocean with at least a dozen evergreens stood around it. The house contained a small living room with a fireplace and a table for dining and a bedroom with a soft, comfortable double-sized bed.

Heather slowly walked with Hiccup toward her house while he put his arm around her shoulder as a support. The four soldiers followed behind them, two males and two females, wearing splendid armors and holding axes or bows and arrows. They were Heather's personal bodyguards. They had been following Heather for more than three years.

"Feeling better?" asked Heather as they stepped into her house.

Not a lot of furniture in the house, but Hiccup still felt pleasant and warm in here. Of course, he preferred Astrid's house back on Berk than this one.

"My brother is a bloodthirsty warrior sometimes, always 'stepping over the line' person," said Heather, "I couldn't imagine what you suffered in Tartarus, even I don't want to enter that area."

"But why did you save me?" Hiccup asked weakly.

She didn't answer. After putting her axe onto the shelf, she closed the gap between them. She looked at Hiccup's broken flight suit and the exposed skin under it. She reached her hand and tried to touch his uncovered shoulder.

Hiccup retreated when Heather's finger interact with him, that sent a shiver through his body. Only Astrid gave him this shiver when touching him.

"Well, you may need to take a bath or something, and I'll let my servants ready the bathtub in my room. You stay here in this house, don't go outside. Not everyone on this island like Berk. I'll fetch you some new clothes."

Heather left the house without her axe. Hiccup slowly took down her axe from the shelf and examined it. She left this in the house with a stranger. Astrid would never do that. Does that mean she trusted him? Hiccup thought.

He walked around the room, trying to memorize everything in this house, in order Heather wasn't a friend but a foe.

She returned in about five minutes, holding a set of new Viking clothes in her hands. "Come," she took his hand and guided him into her room. The bathtub was already filled with warm water, steam emitted from the water.

"Take your clothes off," she tossed the new clothes onto the bed, "Do you want me to help you?"

"No, I can do that on my own." Hiccup answered quickly before Heather put her hand on his chest.

"Ok then, help yourself. I'll be in the living room," she put her hand away from Hiccup, "If you need any help, just ask me. Feel comfortable, Hiccup, I'm not Dagur. I'm not like Dagur, he kills prisoners haphazardly. But I don't want to hurt you."

"I can see that."

"Having a brother like that, most Berserkers view me as Hel. Do you know her? The daughter of Loki and Angerboda."

"But you are nothing like Dagur or Hel."

Heather took a step further, Hiccup could even feel her breath. She leaned forward and left a kiss on Hiccup's cheek.

"Have a nice bath," she said, then she left her bedroom and closed the door behind her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Things are going pretty pleasant to me during holidays. How about yours? I'm waiting for the third How to train your Dragon movie right now.**

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Chapter 6

The crowd gathered by the seaside when the dragons landed appealing on the Island of Berserk. Riders and their chief jumped from the backs of their dragons. Stoick took the lead, and Astrid followed him with her axe in her hand, analyzing the crowd and the island for a potential danger that could threaten their chief. Snotlout and Fishlegs were arguing about whether Snotlout's flirting would provoke Hiccup, and the twins were talking trash. Their dragons followed behind them.

"This must be their heyday, just look at their armada," said Fishlegs.

"They surely replaced their seaside huts by forts and ballistae," added Astrid.

"Great advent, we were waiting for you muttonhe… I mean Berkians. Anyway, welcome to Berserk," Dagur showed up from the crowd, followed by Savage and a few soldiers.

"You enriched your armed force, right?" said Stoick, "preparing for another war?"

"Yes… no, no, no, absolutely not. We passed that time period." replied Dagur reluctantly, "Those ships are protecting our trade routes from pirates."

"No arbitrary moves," said Astrid quietly to the other Riders, "we don't want any troubles with these guys."

Dagur totally disregarded the Riders, yet he chatted with Stoick along the way to the hall brotherly. He showed lots of enthusiasm to his guests and definitely wanted them to feel unstressed.

They walked along a beach with light yellow sand and a great view of the ocean and the horizon. Meanwhile hundreds and hundreds of catapults, ballistae, trebuchets, and heavy weapons lined up beside the shoreline, and a couple of ships docked next to the beach. Some workers gathered around loading weapons onto the ship.

"Those weapons are for display purpose, right?" Snotlout asked, pointing at the weapons.

"No… Yes, yes, yes. We trade and export weapons to other tribes in the Archipelago," answered Dagur, "Those are some high-quality weapons. The catapults can launch more than half a mile, and the ballistae can destroy a ship's mast in one shot."

"Mmmm, trading weapons? Or using weapons as a currency? Never heard of that before," said Stoick.

"Chief," said Astrid to Stoick, avoiding Dagur, "we can see that those weapons are not for trade. There's something we need to elicit from the Berserkers during this trip."

Stoick thought about it for a second, then he slowly nodded his head. He was trying to say something to Dagur, but Dagur already started talking.

"We should get down to business so that we won't waste your time around here," Dagur said quickly pointing to the hall, "we have some papers to sign."

"I think why don't we follow the tradition first before getting down to business," said Stoick.

"What tradition," Dagur turned around.

"The chief of a tribe should take a tour around the land with the visiting chief. So, do you mind if..."

"I really hate that guy," Dagur said to himself, then he changed his tone, "If you insist."

"Lead the way."

Hiccup enjoyed his time in the warm bathtub, yet the water seemed to release his pain and stress from the past three or four weeks. He felt all comfortable even when the bath water contained some of his blood from the injuries.

The last time he took a warm bath was about one or two months ago, in his hut back on Berk, after a whole day of flying with Toothless and working on his project and listening to his father's "how to become a chief". He still remembered that bath, not because of taking a bath on Berk was rarely done by Vikings, but of Astrid. She joined him in the bathtub that night and they shared a short but wonderful time together.

Heather wasn't anything like Astrid, but she gave him this feeling that Astrid was around him. He stared at the ceiling of the house, which was adorned with different paintings. Hiccup couldn't name any of those paintings, but they seemed unique and expensive. One picture contained The hall of Odin and Asgard, one with the Yggdrasil and the Nidhogg, and another one with the giant Ymir.

The first thing he needed to do was find his way back to Berk, and maybe Heather would be so kind to provide him a boat or something. He tried to lift his arm but the pain from broken bones abruptly stroked his brain. He put his arm back into the water again, just to feel better.

What is Toothless doing at this time? Thought Hiccup, he never left him alone for that long. Even though other dragons would keep him company, but Hiccup was the one who had the connection with him, which no other dragons or Vikings could alter.

Hiccup found his mate, but how about Toothless? As the last Night Fury in the world, if he died, there would be no Night Furies left. Hiccup thought about this problem seriously before, but Toothless always interrupted him with his warm and tender smile.

He got out of the bathtub, quickly but gently dried himself and put on the clothes which Heather left on her bed. He didn't want to aggravate his injuries or broken bones because of some stupid moves.

"This is the arena, where we train our young warriors. I think there's one on Berk as well, right?" Dagur pointed at the huge open field surrounded by different buildings and fences.

"Yes, we used that one for dragon training, but it got abandoned later on," said Stoick the Vast, "By the way, any dragons on this island?"

"Unfortunately no. Those creatures are too wild and hard to control to us," said Dagur as he led his guests around the island.

"Did you send someone?" asked Stoick to Astrid while Dagur was talking to Savage.

"Yes, chief, I sent Fishlegs and Meatlug to search the island for potential war-preparations. You know him, he is trustworthy," replied Astrid.

"Good."

When they walked near the edge of the forest, the forest emitted a loud scream that absorbed every single guest's attention. A few Terrible Terrors escaped from the forest at full speed.

"What was that?" asked Stoick as he withdrew his axe, "Wild dragons? Invaders? Do you need our help to deal with it?"

Stoick held his axe in his hand and started marching into the forest with the Riders following behind him. Dagur ran toward them and stopped them before entering the forest.

"Nothing. My soldiers will deal with it. Really, nothing to worry about." said Dagur calmly.

"Ok then," Stoick said, "I hope your men are well-trained."

In the great hall, Dagur and Stoick sat on a bleacher that Savage prepared for the meeting. Stoick was reading the treaty that Dagur just finished composing before their arrival.

"This one is not eloquently written… Mmmm… What does "weaponry privilege" mean?"

"It means that we can use any kind of weapons, including battle rams," replied Dagur.

"But we never had any weapon limits before. We are Vikings…But it doesn't bother me, so I don't care," said Stoick.

"Oh, and an integral part of the treaty is that Berk and Berserk will develop a friendly trade route together as a sign of peace." Dagur pointed out.

"Good, I like that idea," said Stoick as he signed his name below the document and handed it back to Dagur.

After Dagur signed it as well, the two chiefs stood up and shook their hands. "I hope your assistant will start working on the things mentioned by the treaty," Stoick gestured to Savage.

"Of course, he will do that immediately. Am I right Savage?" asked Dagur.

"Yes, Sir," said Savage respectively.

When they were in the air with their dragons, they flew into the clouds where the Berserkers couldn't see them. Fishlegs and Meatlug were already waiting for them.

"Any signs? We didn't find anything on the island, except those heavy weapons," said Astrid.

"Yes, Meatlug and I found two suspicious things," Fishlegs showed to them the map of Berserk with two red circles on it, "We ascertained a hidden house at the shoreline north of the island, and a rock building deep in the forest. The building is surrounded by heavy troops, looks like they are protecting the building or something."

"I knew it. I knew they were concealing something during the visit," said Astrid.

"Astrid, you lead Fishlegs and the twins to check out the house. I and Snotlout will go to the building." appointed Stoick.

"But I want to be with Astrid before Hiccup comes back." murmured Snotlout.

"Watch your mouth, Snot-hat, I heard it," warned Astrid, "you know the rule."

"Fine, fine, no flirting whatsoever during the trip or I go under the ocean."

It was just a mediocre and lonely wooden house away from the community. No splendid decorations nor catapults, just four men stood beside it. The three dragons approached from the sky as quiet as possible.

"That's the house," said Fishlegs, "I'm sure it's not abandoned."

"We can smell the house isn't abandoned a mile away," said Tuffnut.

"How?" asked Astrid, "How do you smell a house?"

"If this house is abandoned, we would smell the dirty rotten and molten fish smack already," said Ruffnut.

"Don't even mention that." interrupted Fishlegs.

A figure emerged from the window of the house. A Viking with brown hair and two green eyes.

Even though that Viking was ambiguous from Astrid's height, but she immediately recognized him. The Viking whom she spent most of her time with and the Viking who changed the way of life on Berk. She was the only one who had the right to say to him "that's my boy". Well, except Stoick.

"That's him," shouted Astrid as she and Stormfly dived down toward the house with her axe swinging in her hand.

"Who?" asked Fishlegs, but Astrid was too far away to hear his voice.

"Just her fiancé," said Tuffnut, "If you want to watch some 'physical flirtings', follow her."

Astrid didn't devise any plans with Fishlegs, so Fishlegs believed that she would use some simple "break in - kick their ass - save the loved - get out" method.

Ruffnut turned to the ocean. She blinked. "Dagur and his ships coming in hot!" she shouted, while pointing at the sea with her spear.

At least a dozen battleships closed in with catapults and ballistae on their open decks. Fishlegs looked at the forest, more than twenty heavy armored Berserk soldiers started marching toward the house where Astrid just landed.

"Tuff, Ruff, you two try to delay Dagur, and I'll go down and help Astrid." said Fishlegs, "Let's go, girl, and teach those Berserks who is the boss."

On one of the ship's open deck stood Dagur with his axe. "Ready the catapults and the archers," he pointed at the Riders, "take down those Riders, but I don't want bodies, I want prisoners."

When Stormfly landed beside the house, Heather's four guards picked up their weapons and tried to protect the house against Astrid. But Stormfly took them out easily with her dragon fire and spine shots.

"Good job, girl," Astrid patted Stormfly on her head, "Stay here and look out for other Berserkers, and I'll go in and meet my boy."

When she broke open the door with her axe, a girl in the room already held a double-sided in her hands. Astrid stroked her shoulder with her axe, but the girl blocked Astrid's axe with her own. Then she threw a punch right into Astrid's face, forced her to back up.

"Shit!" cursed Astrid. She picked up a chair near her and kicked it toward the girl. She cut the wooden chair in half with the axe, but Astrid's foot met her face and knocked her out before she could dodge away.

Astrid brought up her axe and pointed at the girl's neck, ready to split her neck in half.

"Stop! Astrid, don't kill her!" someone shouted from the bedroom. Hiccup ran out from the room. He protected his broken arm with another hand and brought Astrid's axe down. He knelt down beside the unconscious Heather and checked if she was still alive.

Astrid stood there, she couldn't figure out what just happened. When the familiar sound came into her ears, she shivered a little.

"Hiccup? I spent more than a week finding you and you were hanging out with her? On this piece of shit island?" Astrid shouted with furious, brought her axe up again, "Are you serious? You are... "

She could say no more. Hiccup stood up and covered her lips with his. His kisses were hard and thirsty, like a dragon who never tasted fish or a Viking who never drank water. Astrid froze for a moment. Then she felt the anger and furious melt away slowly through his lips. She dropped her axe on the ground and put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her.

"Forgive me, Astrid," said Hiccup, "I'll explain later."

"Ok then," Astrid held on to his arm, "Let's get out of here first."

"Ahhh…"Hiccup let out a painful cry, "Don't touch my arm…"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Astrid said carefully and released him. She ran her fingers along his arm gently, so that she could feel the broken bones of his, "Who did this? That girl?" She pointed at Heather.

"No, someone else," said Hiccup, he looked at her face, "But I missed you, every single day after I left you."

"Me too," Astrid hugged him, "I missed you too. I couldn't live without you, I couldn't bear the loneliness and the trivial work on Berk. Come, I will get Gothi when we get back."

She kissed him again while her hand held onto his jaw.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Fishlegs shouted from outside, "I don't want to interrupt, but I and Meatlug are risking our lives out here protecting you two from the fearless Berserkers, and I think they called for backups. So you better stop that nonsense. We need to go, right NOW! You can continue on with it when we get back to Berk."

Another group of Berserker soldiers appeared from the forest, and a few arrows landed beside Fishlegs' feet.

"That was close," he said, "Meatlug, take out those archers!"

A fireball shot out from Meatlug's mouth and landed among the archers, and the explosion knocked them down to the ground. Some of the archers caught fire on their uniforms.

A big piece of rock landed a few feet away from Fishlegs and created a small crater. A catapult on one of the ships launched it. Fishlegs could see green Zippleback gas flown among the ships and frequent explosions with soldiers screaming in pain jumping into the sea. At least the twins were trying their best.

Astrid helped Hiccup climb up to Stormfly's back. With a broken arm that wasn't an easy job to Hiccup. Astrid jumped on as well, and Hiccup held on to Astrid's waist with one hand just in case he fell off from Stormfly.

"Take us out of here, girl," she said to Stormfly, then she turned to Fishlegs, "Let's go! Leave the Berserkers! We are not here to fight!"

"I'm coming. Wait up," said Fishlegs while he climbed onto Meatlug.

Rocks and arrows flew in the air around them, Fishlegs could hear the whistle sound when the arrows flew pass him. He saw the arrowheads were covered with some greenish substance.

"Watch out, dragon root arrows!" shouted Fishlegs, "I don't have to worry but you two should hide into the clouds."

"We will, but be careful as well. I know that Meatlug is immune to dragon roots but you aren't," replied Astrid.

 **Which character do you want to see next? Leave a comment below and tell me your thought, thank you.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

When Gothi arrived at Hiccup's hut, which was filled by Vikings, she didn't start treating Hiccup's wounds right away like Astrid expected. She stared at him for a long time.

"What's wrong? Gothi?" asked Gobber. Usually, Gobber was Gothi's translator when Gothi was treating patients.

Gothi quickly wrote something on the ground with her crutch.

"She wrote 'take off your shit'," translated Gobber. Then he turned to her, "Why would you write something like that?"

She hit his head with her crutch and pointed at her writing.

"Sorry, she wrote 'take off your shirt'. You should learn how to write then," corrected Gobber.

Gothi hit his head again.

"Fine, fine, fine."

Hiccup hesitated for a moment, but he still stood up from the bed and lifted his jacket off.

All Vikings in the room let out a loud gasp, and they looked at Hiccup's exposed body open-eyed.

"What happened to him?"

"Who did that?"

"Is he ok?"

People started murmuring while Astrid covered her mouth with her hand, and Stoick had unspeakable anger on his face, yet others were just shocked.

Hiccup's body was covered with scars and bruises, and they couldn't even find a piece of skin that was normal and undamaged. Some sharp tools left different marks and scratches on his skin. A six-inch long wound located from his neck to his stomach.

When he turned around, the crowd gave an even louder gasp. They could clearly see his dislocated backbones poking his skin and created more than four bumps along his skin.

Even though Vikings were already used to blood and fleshes, but still some Vikings left the hut with their eyes shut, hands on their forehead. Gothi walked slowly toward Hiccup, Astrid could tell from Gothi's face that she wasn't feeling pleasant as well. She ran her fingers along his scars and injuries, like identifying some sort of ancient Viking sword.

Then she pulled something out of his bag. It was an external-use medicine that she invented few weeks ago, and she didn't have time to test it. Astrid guess Gothi would use Hiccup as her field test patient. She put the medicine on Hiccup's wounds and spread it smoothly across Hiccup's skin.

Gothi wrote something on the ground, but apparently, Gobber wasn't paying attention to her. He was busy chatting with a group of Vikings.

Gothi hit his back with her crutch. Gobber jumped into the air with a painful yell.

"Ahhhh!" yelled Gobber, "Ok, ok, settle down, old lady. She wrote 'take some rest, don't do too much exercise, including flying. After one or two weeks and you'll be ok'."

"Thank you, Gothi," said Hiccup as he put his jacket back on and sat on his bed.

Astrid sat on his bed beside him as well, and she put her arm around his shoulder.

"Well, I guess we need to leave these lovebirds alone," Stoick said and he shepherded other Vikings out of Hiccup's hut, "Such a long day, right?"

After knowing Hiccup was fine, the Vikings didn't linger too long in his hut. Also, they didn't want to disturb a great romance between their future chief and possible future chiefess. They left the hut with a smile on their faces and some Vikings gestured toward Hiccup and sending Thor-knows-what 'information'. Usually these figures were a little bit inappropriate, but neither Hiccup nor Astrid cared. Snotlout was the only one who didn't want to leave at once, but Spitelout knocked on his helmet and pushed him out of the hut.

Toothless came near to Hiccup and licked his hands. Hiccup patted him gently. Then he lay down next to his bed and fell asleep.

When Astrid watched the last Viking to leave Hiccup's hut, she wiggled even closer to him, almost climbed onto him. She rested her jaw on his shoulder, and gently kissed the back of his ear, which sent him a small shiver through his body.

"Tell me what happened to you," she said.

"You don't want to know, and you don't have to know," he responded quietly.

"Oh, I want to know and I have to know," Astrid wouldn't give up.

Hiccup sighed. He knew that he didn't have a choice. Astrid gave him a command, not an option.

He lowered his head and stared at the floor blankly. Then he told her everything. Starting from how did the war against the Romans overwhelmed him, to his solo sea voyage without Toothless, and how Dagur kidnapped him, The Berserker Island, The Tartarus, how Dagur abused him for a month, and how Heather saved his life. Everything.

It was already midnight when Hiccup finished his story, and Toothless was sleeping soundly beside him. He didn't light a torch so the room was lighted only by the moonlight. Astrid lay on Hiccup's bed during the story, and Hiccup sat on the bed beside her, running his hand along her blonde hair.

"Did anything happen between you and Heather?" Astrid asked, and she turned to him, "Like… You know…"

"No, no, no," Hiccup said quickly, "After the bath, you guys showed up. I promise that nothing… inappropriate happened."

"I know you wouldn't do something like that."

Hiccup paused, "During some scenarios, girls are the most selfish creature in the world. Like…Like…"

"Like boyfriends?" Astrid replied.

"Yes, like boyfriends. You could've asked much more strategic questions like 'how many guards or soldiers did you see?' But you chose that one."

Astrid moved closer to him and putting her head on his laps. "Of course girls won't share their boyfriends with other girls," she reached her hand and put it on Hiccup's jaw, "You are mine. My boyfriend. Say it, say 'I'm yours'."

"You say it first," Hiccup looked down at her nattier blue eyes.

"Fine, fine," Astrid chuckled, "You know that I'm always yours."

"Then I will always be yours."

"Room service! Room service! Hey Mr. and Mrs. Haddock! GET UP!" someone shouted from the outside of Hiccup's hut, "Hope you two spent a pleasant night together."

Snotlout and Fishlegs were standing outside the wooden hut, and Snotlout was yelling as loud as possible so that he would wake those two "sleepies".

Astrid didn't go back to her hut last night. She spent her time in Hiccup's hut. After the death of Uncle Finn and her parents, she didn't really have a home anyway. Stoick and Gobber built a splendid hut for her in the community, but she usually had sleepovers in Hiccup's hut.

Fishlegs and Snotlout were sent by Stoick to summon Hiccup and Astrid to the Great Hall, and apparently, they had problems with waking those two up.

"You know what, Fish-face? Let's break in and drag them to the Great Hall. Otherwise, Stoick will beat us up." Snotlout suggested.

Fishlegs hesitated. He was Hiccup's most trustworthy friend, and he didn't want to draw Hiccup to some meetings when he was still recovering from his injuries. But this time every dignity of Berk had to attend this meeting in the Great Hall. Gobber, Gothi, Spitelout were already there, and they need Hiccup and Astrid as well.

Other Dragon Riders like Fishlegs and Snotlout were able to attend as well, but they got strict instruction that they couldn't say a word during the meeting unless someone tells them to do so.

Fishlegs knew what the meeting would be about. 99% they would start preparing for a long and bloody war against the Berserkers again. The Berkians defeated them years ago, in which they killed the previous chief of Berserker tribe, Oswald the Agreeable, in a sea battle.

"We'll be right there! Just give us five minutes." someone inside the hut said.

"Not later, not in five minutes, you two get your butts to the Great Hall right now! Or… Or…Or..." shouted Snotlout in response, "Or we'll force you two to marry someone else!"

Two figures appeared in front of them as soon as Snotlout finished his sentence. They pointed their weapons to Snotlout's head.

"You say that again, I promise I will not 'kill' you."

"You better keep your little piggy mouth shut!"

"That… That was fast…" watched Fishlegs with open-mouth.

"Take it easy, Hiccstrid."

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 **Hope you guys had a great Christmas! I had this whole story planned out by now, so it's only the matter of time for me to finish the story. Escaping from The Island of Berserk is just a beginning. Thanks to everyone who took their time and read my story and please please please write a review below and tell me what you think about the story, thank you.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

When Hiccup and Astrid entered the Great Hall, Stoick, Gobber, Spitelout, and Bucket were sitting in a circle arguing back and forth. The rest of the Riders sat in the corner listening to them.

"We need to strike first when Dagur is still preparing his armada," Spitelout shouted.

"We still have allies. Alvin sent a messenger to Berserker Island," said Stoick, "Now we need to wait for Alvin's response."

"Uh… Excuse us. Can someone fill us in?" asked Hiccup politely while he and Astrid took a seat beside them.

"Ah, we are glad that you can join us," said Gobber, he patted Hiccup on the back, "We were talking about how to deal with Dagur and his new armada."

"Well, I'm sure that his target is Berk." Hiccup said.

"But why?" asked Bucket.

"You remember years ago, we defeated the Berserkers and killed their former chief Oswald the Agreeable? He was Dagur's father. And second of all, he told me that when he imprisoned me in Tartarus."

"A revenge kill," Stoick realized it, "and he wanted to fabricate us with the treaty. We nearly fell into his trap."

"But Dagur's force is at least six times more than ours. The chance of winning the war with Alvin on our side is still pretty low," said Astrid.

"Winning the war is still possible if we exert all of our forces. All Berkians, men, women, children, and dragons," said Hiccup.

The Great Hall fell into silence for a moment.

"Ok, then, we have a bloody war in front of us, everyone," announced Stoick, "prepare for the war."

These Vikings were very straightforward. Every meeting wouldn't last more than 20 minutes, and they wouldn't delay any of their decisions. No matter what they needed to decide, they didn't take a long time to think and plan.

Stoick was in charge of Berk's native force, the fearless Berk warriors. They started re-armoring the ships which were used as fishing boats after they stopped fighting with the dragons. Gobber was working in his forge day and night. He was still using the archaic method from some old Viking manuscripts during forging.

The Riders were put in charge of training new riders and dragons. Hiccup Haddock, the idol figure to almost every teenage girls on Berk, got his new riders easily. Girls joined his "new dragon rider training program" so that they would see their idol and the idol's dragon every day.

"Looks like this time the boy is the honey and the girls are the bees," commented Fishlegs.

Hiccup was trying to let a dragon Rider keep an eye on Dagur's expanding armada, just in case Dagur made abrupt changes. Fishlegs could be the one, but Hiccup needed his assistance during the training. Snotlout and the twins were immediately eliminated from the name list. Hiccup did trust them, but he didn't want to take the risk. So the job landed on Astrid's head.

Hiccup found Astrid in Gobber's forge, and she was helping Gobber with the weapons. However, Astrid rejected this job with ambiguous wordings when Hiccup explained the details to her.

"Well… Gobber might need my help and… You know… Stormfly is a little lazy these days…" said Astrid, avoiding Hiccup's gaze.

"Huh? What?" Hiccup got so confused.

"She just wants to stay with you, my dear Hiccup," Spitelout just passed by and said, "Don't you worry, I'll go."

After Spitelout flew toward the Island of Berserk secretly, Hiccup turned to Astrid: "What was that?"

"I don't want to leave you again. After you'd gone missing, I felt so guilty that I didn't come with you. Then you didn't have to suffer in Tartarus," said Astrid quietly, looking at the ground.

Hiccup surprised at her reaction. Years ago it was him who didn't even dare to look Astrid in the eyes, and it was him who got beaten by her and didn't even dare to tell his father. He always got yelled at by Astrid during training. But now, Astrid Hofferson, the former bossing-around, became the big baby.

"Come here," Hiccup said with open arms.

Astrid jumped into his arms, put her arms around his waist, and rested her head on his chest. Her golden hair covered her face. Hiccup put his hand on her head and soothed her with his gentle touch.

"Next time I won't leave you here, " whispered Hiccup by Astrid's ear, "And thank you."

"Thank me what?" asked Astrid.

"For worrying and caring about me," Hiccup said as he left a kiss on Astrid's cheek.

"Hey, hey, hey," Gobber said and pointed at Hiccup and Astrid, "This, is not welcomed in my forge."

"But you just pointed to all of us," said Hiccup and Astrid.

"Yes, all of YOU. No public displays of affection, including kissing and hugging, are allowed in my forge. Either you work or you get out. You can do whatever you want in your hut, but NOT in my forge. Your little thing is really distracting. Oh, Odin, I really need to create some rules," said Gobber, he paused, "you know what, Hiccup. You will become the most womanized chief in the whole Viking history."

"Shut up, Gobber," said Hiccup.

Dagur rebuilt the great hall of the island of Berserk into his own headquarter. Every kind of maps was laid out on the tables, captains were arguing about some details of the plan besides the maps, and Dagur was sitting in his throne. His eyes landed on the map of Berk.

"I can't believe that you lost him. Lock someone in a prison should be the easiest work," someone behind him said.

"There is no prison in the world that can say '100%' secure," said Dagur, "besides, a mess-around sister won't help at all."

"How is your plan?" the voice asked after a few seconds of thinking.

"Pretty smooth, the Las Cosmos Armada is ready, and we are just waiting for your ships to join us," replies Dagur.

"My ships will arrive a few hours later."

"Good, then we will take Berk definitely."

"Do you still remember our deal?"

"Of course, of course. After we defeated the Berkians, you will become the new controller and ruler of Berk," said Dagur deeply, and he turned to the man behind him, "Alvin the Outcast."

On the Island of Berserk, everyone was getting ready for the war that their chief planned ahead. Surprisingly, Dagur used some method to get support from his people, and now there were almost no objectors. And of course, Dagur locked the objectors into the prison of Tartarus.

Some people questioned the possibility of winning the war because the Berkians were a group of fearsome Vikings just like themselves.

"We won't be fighting alone during the war. We will have allies. Just be patient," said Dagur to the Berserkers.

"Then who are our allies?" someone asked.

"Wait and see," Dagur said miserably.

Alvin stood beside Dagur's throne, watching the crowd of ship captains.

* * *

 ***** Why do you think Alvin supported the Berserkers in the war?**

 **Leave a comment and tell us your opinion. Thank you.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Two weeks later

"Dagur named his armada 'The Las Cosmos'. It's armed with all sorts of weapons in the known archipelago. And it has five divisions, Cosmos-1 to Cosmos-5. Cosmos-2 is the strongest division, with more than 60 heavily armed battleships," Spitelout reported to the leaders of Berk.

"Needless to say, we are outnumbered," said Astrid, "We only have 20 ships."

"How about dragons? Do they have dragons?" asked Hiccup.

"Oh sure, the old Hiccup," muttered Snotlout.

"Well, I don't know. At least I didn't see any," Spitelout said.

"Don't worry about the ships, we Berkians can crush those muttonheads into pieces," said Stoick confidently.

"I don't think it's that easy," said Gobber, "we need to come up with a plan."

"Hey, I thought that should be Hiccup's line," Tuffnut said abruptly.

"Guys, this is not the time for entertaining. Just be quiet," gestured Hiccup.

"Oh, no?"

"How is your new rider training program?" asked Stoick, "Berkians are ready to fight, and I would like to have air support during a battle."

"Not quite good..." said Hiccup as he scratched his auburn hair.

"How so?"

"Because the new riders couldn't learn anything while they were mentally dating with their _instructor_ ," responded Astrid.

"And I think this situation needs a serious solution," added Fishlegs. He was Hiccup's assistant during the training, "Now we need more dragon riders. We only have five dragons and six Riders. No matter how powerful, strategic, and well-trained we are, we can't use five dragons to fight against a whole armada."

"Mmmm, that's weird," said Snotlout, thoughtfully, "those girls should come to me because I'm the reason why we have dragons."

"SNOTLOUT!" bellowed the Riders.

"So the new riders are all girls who fell head over heels in love with you, right? Then you need to come up with some useful solutions to your problem," said Stoick pointing at Hiccup, "I don't think it's funny. We need more dragon riders in battle."

"I tried to tell Hiccup about it," said Astrid, gave Hiccup a punch on the shoulder, "But he was way too lenient during training."

"Ok then, Astrid, you will become Hiccup's new assistant in the program. Be sure to keep an eye on both Hiccup and the new riders. I give you the power to alter and abolish every instruction from _the instructor_ ," Stoick then changed into a whisper that only Astrid could hear, "Don't be gentle to him."

"You got it, chief," said Astrid.

"Ha...ha...ha..." Hiccup gave a forced smile.

When Stoick and the Berkians were practicing sea battle strategies, Hiccup was training the new riders on the open field beside the shoreline, where they could view the harbor and the dock, and Toothless was entertaining himself with a stick that he found on the ground.

"First thing first, what did we do yesterday?" asked Hiccup to the eight girls in front of him, who were watching Hiccup just like ancient Vikings worshiping Freya.

"Well...we learned … you know… how to…" a girl said shyly, " how to bond with a dragon?"

"We learned that long ago," said Hiccup, "Come on, Nigerlina, you are better than this."

"Ok, I admit it," the girl who's name was Nigerlina said slowly, "I wasn't paying attention yesterday."

"At least you should know how to control your dragon first," Hiccup gestured at a young Nadder who was wandering around and clearly untrained.

"Oh, boy, it's gonna take him forever to train those new girls," said Astrid to herself while watching the class. Then she turned to Stormfly, who was standing next to her, "Stoick ordered us to train those girls into 'flying mortal Valkyries', but Hiccup has made no progress up till now. What do you think?"

Stormfly answered with a loud screech.

"That's it, Stormfly!" Astrid picked her axe from the ground and headed toward the class, "It's time for me to take over his useless training."

"Today, we are going to…" started Hiccup, deciding to ignore Nigerlina and start today's training. Astrid patted him on the shoulder.

"What?" he asked.

"Let me do the training," said Astrid.

"You? Are you sure? You are good at battling, but not teaching."

"Let me do it. Otherwise, we are screwed," Astrid said with a commanding tone.

"Fine, fine," Hiccup took a step back, "We will do it your way then. Try not to be too hard on them."

"Oh, now you are defending them?" Astrid pointed at the eight girls with her axe.

"Yes… no, no, no, I just don't want… want them to be too stressed out," said Hiccup quickly.

Astrid chuckled at her boyfriend's bashful reaction, and that was what made him attractive to her. She suddenly held onto the front of Hiccup's jacket and pull him closer to her and crashed her lips onto his.

"What was that for?" Hiccup asked.

"To show dominance."

"Dominance?"

"Yeah, so that those girls won't be daydreaming about you and your body."

"Hopefully."

The girls "oohed" behind Hiccup and Astrid, and Hiccup could hear the chitchats from the girls about him and Astrid.

"All right you girls," Astrid turned to the new riders, "I think I don't have to introduce myself, so we will get down to training immediately."

As Hiccup sat on a barrel beside them with Toothless next to him, almost all eight pairs of eyes turned toward him.

"What?" said Hiccup when he realized the girls' dreamy glares.

Before Hiccup could do something, Astrid threw her axe towards the first girl who turned her head away. The axe missed her forehead by less than an inch and sliced down half of her bangs.

The girls turned their attention back to Astrid with astonishing looks on their faces while the first girl screamed out loud and covered her face with her hands.

" Good," said Astrid with an unimpressed tone, "because I got your attention, shall we begin our training?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the girls responded with a slight shiver in their sounds. None of the girls wanted to be the one who was going to be the next to get her head chopped in half by Astrid's axe.

"We need to restart from scratch and forget the things that _that_ nice-and-handsome Viking taught to you," Astrid pointed at Hiccup.

"Hey!" protested Hiccup, then turning to Toothless, "I think she is trying to overthrow me and take control forever."

Meanwhile, on the Island of Berserkers, The Las Cosmos Armada was gathering by the island and practicing their sea battle formations. Hundreds of ships were divided into five divisions, and each of the groups had their own jobs to do, so they practiced separately. The Berserker ships painted their symbols on the ports and the Outcasts put long spears on the front of their ships.

"Just look at this," said Dagur to Savage while they were standing by the dock watching the ships, "No tribes in this world can defeat this armada."

"Not even the Romans, Sir," Savage added.

"Hiccup is definitely training more riders covertly. That means we need to have dragons on our side as well."

"We tried to control some wild dragons on this island," said Savage, "but we lost ten soldiers and failed."

"Then we need to turn our attention to some… well, more trainable dragons," Dagur drew his metal dagger from the scabbard and held it in front of Savage, "Which our ancestors described in The Books."

* * *

 *****In your opinion, What was the dragon that Dagur wanted to train?**

 **Leave a review and tell us your idea.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

The sky turned dark grey due to the heavy clouds, and the Berserkers were standing outdoor to witness this unprecedented scene. An electrical storm formed on top of the island. Few bright bolts of lightning stroke a wooden house on the ground.

Dagur and Savage stood on the open beach with a couple of archers with dragon root arrows with them, ready to take down a Skrill. The Book said that lightning could attract Skrills, or the Skrills could produce lightning. All the ships docked in the harbor for safety because the ship captains didn't want to take the risk of being hit by a flash of lightning.

"What does he think he is doing," said Heather. She was standing on top of the cliffs which the beach was right underneath it. Her personal guards were surrounding her.

"The chief said that he set a trap to catch a Skrill," a guard answered.

"A Skrill? He will get himself killed," Heather shook her head, "A Skrill is not that stupid."

"He is using the old method, from the Book."

"Well, good luck to him," said Heather, she paused, "If that Skrill kills him, then I will take full control of this island, right?"

"Yes, madam."

A shadow appeared in the clouds, with light blue electricities floating around it. Seconds later, a catapult few hundred feet away from them got struck by lightning and exploded into a bright orange fireball. Some anxious soldiers beside the catapult started launching arrows and throwing spears into the air even though they had no idea where was their target.

The arrows and spears indirectly provoked the dragon who was flying in the clouds. The Skrill dove down towards the soldiers and released a strong lightning bolt from its mouth, and the soldiers turned into broken bodies when the lightning hit the beach.

"Get its attention," ordered Dagur.

The archers behind him shot multiple dragon root arrows at the Skrill, but all the arrows landed on the sand harmlessly. The Skrill turned its head towards the men on the other side of the beach. Dagur held his metal dagger in the air, slowly swinging it at the Skrill. The Skrill instantly flew up into the clouds at a high speed and disappeared.

"Where is the Skri...AHHHH!" before Savage could finish his sentence, the dark blue dragon dove right down at them with flashes of lightning splashing around its scales.

Dagur did not move, he still held the dagger high in the air and started waving it. The Skrill stopped in the air and watched the metal object in Dagur's hand. His wings flapped with a rhythm in order to keep the Skrill levitating.

"Easy dragon, easy," said Dagur, trying to calm the dragon.

"Now fire!" Savage shouted.

Before the dragon could react, two dragon root arrows shot through the air and pierced into the Skrill's scales. The dragon lost all of its power due to the dragon root and fell into the sea with a loud and painful roar.

"Bring him up, but keep him in a watered cage," Dagur said as he put the dagger back into the sheath.

As the archers started working on pulling the Skrill out from the water, Dagur looked up towards the cliffs. He could see a figure on the cliffs with silver metal armor watching at him.

He gave a mild smile, even though he knew that she could not see his minor gesture.

"Savage, you lead the archers to trap as many Skrills as possible. We need to control the air during the war," Dagur commanded.

"They look aggressive and powerful. Mmmmm, I have to say, nice work, Astrid. Berk finally got two teams of riders," commented Stoick as he watched the new riders during their training. Astrid stood beside him and Hiccup followed behind them with Stormfly and Toothless. After Astrid took over the control of the training, Hiccup became her assistance.

The new riders presented some fancy moves with their dragons in front of their chief, seemed like to get his attention. Under Astrid's strict, iron-grip, and severe training, the girls finally achieved Stoick's expectation.

"We went over air-to-sea and air-to-land combats and personal sword-fighting lessons. Their dragons met my standard as well," reported Astrid, "Now they can join a battle with and without a dragon."

"You chose the Nadders for them?" Stoick asked, "I can see eight Nadders right now, but do you think they need some varieties?"

"They chose the Nadders, and I don't really know why, and I think it is okay to have one species of dragon."

"Cool, I guess we can teach Dagur some manners when he comes here," said Stoick, then he pointed at Hiccup, "Did he do anything?" Stoick asked sarcastically.

"Well, he helped me to prepare the fight dummies before training," Astrid answered.

"Hey, tell him the truth, Astrid," Hiccup objected.

"That's what you did!"

Then Astrid and Hiccup fell into an argument about what did Hiccup do during the training. Stoick quickly lost his patience and decided to interfere the quarrel.

"Enough, just stop," said Stoick, "I've seen enough. Right now you two need to let them stay sharp and be ready for a bloody war."

"A bloody war you say," commented Hiccup

"Yes, our war against the Berserkers will be brutal and blood-spreading-everywhere," Stoick patted both Astrid and Hiccup on the shoulder. Then, he left with Skullcrusher by his side.

"What's in your mind?" asked Astrid.

"We need to lead them into a real battle for practice. Otherwise, they will freak out during the war," said Hiccup as he gestured towards the new riders.

"That's a… pretty good idea, but where do you want to take them?"

"Somewhere near the Island of Berserk, Dagur surely has some patrol ships. Maybe we can ambush one or two."

* * *

 **Sorry for the wait. I'm busy these days so I didn't have a lot of time for writing, and I know that this chapter is a little short.**

 **Do you agree with Hiccup's opinion? Don't forget to leave a review and tell us your perspective.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello everyone. I'm back again. Please enjoy the following chapters and leave a review so that I can improve my stories. Just for a reminder, this chapter will contain some profanities.**

* * *

Chapter 11:

"Saddle up, young Vikings," Astrid jumped onto the back of Stormfly.

The new riders were standing by their dragons, holding their swords or axes in their hands. After they received the instruction, they obeyed it. Hiccup was testing his Inferno. The sword released some sparks of fire when he checked the strength of the sword.

"Hey, you coming?" Astrid shouted at Hiccup.

"Oh, yes of course," Hiccup answered as he climbed onto the back of Toothless and placed his prosthetic leg into position, "Come on bud."

The Night Fury gave a yawn because Hiccup just woke him from his nap and slapped his rider with his right ear.

"Don't even start it. I will give you enough time for your nap after we come back," Hiccup said as he patted Toothless' head.

Toothless grunted and stretched his wings.

"Uhhh, Ms. Hofferson," a new rider raised her hand in the air. After Astrid became the trainer, the new riders were scared of her iron-grip rules so that they started calling Astrid Ms. Hofferson. "Can Mr. Haddock lead this mission?"

"Why?" Astrid raised her voice.

"Well, I think he is the real trainer, and you technically overthrew his position," another girl said.

"Trinianka, we talked about this!" shouted Astrid, "I didn't overthrow him."

"You did! " the girl whose name was Trinianka objected.

"I didn't! "

"You did ! Don't lie to us. We all saw it!"

Astrid held up her ax in front of Trinianka, "Don't argue with me, or I will chop you into pieces. Now shut your fucking mouth up."

"Try all you have, Missy," Trinianka responded, staring straight into Astrid's eyes.

"Ladies, ladies," Hiccup finally decided to put this into an end. He put Astrid's ax down, "We are a team. We are one. Now calm down, both of you."

"Yeah, easy for you to say," Astrid crossed her arms.

"I think you should control your crazy, wild, bitchy girlfriend first," Trinianka said, pointing at Astrid.

The other girls gasped with surprise. That wasn't something they should say toward Astrid and Hiccup on this island. They all knew that in order to get some valuable training, they needed to at least show some respect to both Astrid and Hiccup.

"Trinianka! Did you lost your mind?" Nigerlina said and she tried to pull Trinianka away and said to Astrid and Hiccup with an apology, "I'm so sorry, she is not feeling well today."

Before Trinianka could say something in response, Astrid threw a punch on Trinianka's jaw. Trinianka fell down from her Nadder under Astrid's furious attack. Astrid was gentle on her this time. When Snotlout provoked her before, she actually whipped the crap out of him.

"That's it, you are expelled from this team," Astrid shouted at Trinianka, " And, watch your stupid mouth from now on."

Trinianka didn't give in. She picked up her sword and flung it towards Astrid with such a violent that the sword slightly quivered in the air. Astrid turned her body and dodged the flying sword and caught the handle of the sword in her left hand when it flew past her.

Years of training and fightings gave her this ability. Even Stoick could not say that he could easily defeat her in any kinds of sword fighting.

"Did you try to murder me?" asked Astrid stonily.

Without thinking, Hiccup dove down towards Trinianka and tackled her to the ground just to make sure that she wouldn't do any more harm. She was still resisting beneath him even though Hiccup was strong enough to control her.

"Trinianka, you need to calm down! What's wrong with you today?" Hiccup shouted.

None of the seven girls tried to defend for Trinianka. They all knew that physically antagonize their leaders was strictly prohibited on Berk. Years ago, when a Viking decided to assassinate Stoick because he thought that Stoick's way of ruling was driving him crazy. Gobber chopped that Viking into four pieces before he could stab his dagger into Stoick's heart.

"You nasty bastard! "yelled Trinianka.

"That's it. Hiccup, lock her up," Astrid said with extreme vexation on her face.

Hiccup hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to throw Trinianka into Berk's dungeon. He knew that Trinianka had dragon-training talents within her, and he discovered that during the training.

"What? You want to join her?" asked Astrid to Hiccup. She still had furious in her, and Hiccup realized that it wasn't the time to correct Astrid's decision, and he will release Trinianka anyway. He picked Trinianka up from the ground and gave a gentle push on her back, "Come on, let's go."

The other girls watched as Toothless accompanied Hiccup and Trinianka to the far side of the island of Berk. The Vikings built a small dungeon by the shoreline years ago in order to keep the captures from battles, and Stoick assigned Bucket and Mulch as the guards of the dungeon.

"She should stop being so bossy," Trinianka complained to Hiccup.

"Sorry, young lady," Hiccup shrugged, "That's her characteristic. Before I tried to resist it but failed."

"No, I mean, during training, she didn't allow us to have any disagreements. And we obeyed her just because she would punish us physically if we didn't."

Hiccup didn't respond, the pair walked silently to the entrance of the dungeon. He was surprised that Trinianka didn't resist to go to the dungeon. He recalled once that when Bucket and Mulch nearly got threw into the sea when they were bringing a capture into the dungeon.

"You don't want to… well, defend for yourself or something?" Hiccup asked, "You seemed pretty ok for going to the dungeon."

"Well, we need to take the consequences of our actions, right? And I don't think I stand a chance in front of the future chief of Berk and a Night Fury," Trinianka gave Toothless a gentle touch on the head.

Toothless wasn't paying attention to their trip to the dungeon. He was maybe daydreaming of the rights of the world. His prosthetic wing made some mild tinkling sound while walking.

Hiccup gazed at Trinianka. Just a couple of minutes ago, she was a furious Viking who tried to kill her leader, but right now she became a tender girl who was wandering around in a forest.

The aged wooden floor gave a creaking sound when Bucket and Mulch stepped out to greet Hiccup and Trinianka. They were looking wore out and covered with dust.

"Whoa, what happened to you two?" Hiccup asked.

"This place needs some maintenances, so Stoick sent us to reinforce the dungeon for the war," Bucket responded as he was leaning onto Mulch, "Can I help you two."

"Well, I'm here to lock her up," Hiccup said.

"Why? What did she do?" Mulch pointed at the black-hair girl beside Hiccup, "She looks like the kind of Viking who would never get into any trouble."

"Well, Astrid would throw me into the dungeon as well if I don't lock her up," Hiccup chuckled.

"So we are just playing a game, right?" Mulch asked.

"Yeah, after Astrid released her anger, I will be here to pick her up."


	12. Chapter 12

**Right now I have more free time for writing, so I guess the updates will be more frequent from now on. Please leave a comment about the story and thank you for all of your support.**

* * *

Chapter 12:

When eight Deadly Nadders and one Night Fury landed on the cliffs of Berk which Hiccup designed to be their training area, the seven girls were shouting and cheering and congratulating each other about what they accomplished by the Island of Berserk.

The new riders successfully ambushed a few patrol ships under the assistance and directions from Astrid and Hiccup. They met the caliber set by Astrid before the mission.

"Well, I have to say, you guys really did a good job, for beginners of course," Astrid said to the new riders as they lined up in front of her.

"That was a lot of fun. I didn't feel any uncertainties," one girl said.

"Ok then, Xerxianna," said Astrid, "Explain it."

The girl's name was a variant of the name Xerxes, the famous Persian king who won the Battle of Thermopylae. She was a tall girl with dark hair and blue eyes. Her dragon was a purple and blue Deadly Nadder who liked to eat vegetables instead of fishes.

"Well, I didn't even think about how I should control the dragon. I just followed my instinct, and it worked out pretty well," she responded.

"Good."

"Sorry if this interrupts your battle reflections," Hiccup stood beside Astrid and faced at the girls, "But I think you should name yourselves. By which I mean create a group name."

"Well, consider that we all have a Nadder as our dragon, we should call ourselves the Nadder Team," a girl answered.

"The Nadder Team?" Hiccup thought about the name for a moment, "That's a good one, Elise. Then Nadder Team it is."

"Ha, I knew it could work," the girl who's name was Elise gave her friend a nudge.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the Island of Berserk.

"They are getting stronger and stronger. Their dragons ambushed a small group of patrol ships," said Dagur to Alvin as they were standing on the deck of Dagur's ship.

"You think the Las Cosmos Armada won't be able to crush the Berkians?" Alvin asked.

"I don't want to take any risks that will extend the war. I want a quick battle, maybe two or three, to destroy their defenses."

"When will we attack?"

"Tomorrow. Cosmos 5 will lead the attack, and Cosmos 2 will set the traps. Heather will lead Cosmos 3 as the auxiliary troop. Just in case the battle stretches too long."

"That's it?"

"What do you mean by 'that's it'?"

"Sounds pretty simple."

"Oh, and we have a deep cover who works for us."

"Where is this spy, if that is the right word."

"She is living with the Berkians, but deeply covered. The Berkians won't know about her until she shows herself. But we will use her only when it's necessary. Otherwise, we will waste this precious person."

The battleships were filled with heavy weapons and armed soldiers. A trip to Berk by ships would take a few hours, and Dagur needed time to deploy different divisions into positions. All the ships were colored in dark grey, and the sails were decorated by the emblem of the Las Cosmos Armada, a curving spear with a lightning bolt carved on the tip.

"How about your Skrills?" Alvin asked as their ships led the ships toward Berk.

"We don't need those dragons in the first battle. The Berkians will 99 percent fell into our trap."

* * *

"Well, well, well, look at those young, fresh riders," Snotlout said as the Dragon Riders met the Nadder Team on the clifftop for a meeting.

"Were we ever that young?" asked Ruffnut as she leaned on Hiccup's body.

"Hey, watch it," said Fishlegs, trying to act serious, "He is taken."

"Do you even call a guy taken? I thought it's for gals," Tuffnut pointed out.

"Guys, this is an official meeting so that I can introduce you to the new Nadder Team," Hiccup interrupted their "trash talk", "I want you to be on your best behavior."

"Uhh, they are all girls. Does that mean…"

"No, Snotlout," Astrid said before Snotlout could finish his question, "You can not randomly pick one as your... well… 'flirting gal'."

"You really know me, Astrid. You really really do know me."

"Don't push it."

"Um, Hiccup," a girl poked Hiccup as the Riders started banging each other on the head, "I know that those are the Riders, but are you sure they carried their brains with them?"

"You know what, Alkai," said Hiccup as he patted on Alkai's shoulder. Alkai was Elise's best friend and hang out with her all the time. "I think they lost them," continued Hiccup.

"Guys, seriously? You really need to calm down," bellowed Hiccup at the Dragon Riders.

Nobody listened, so the girls from the Nadder Team were standing by their Nadders and watching them screwing around.

"Ok, then," Hiccup turned to Toothless, "Can you help me, bud?"

A plasma blast exploded among the Riders, creating a small dark crater among the pistachio green field. Snotlout ducked to the ground for protection while Astrid already moved herself to the side of Hiccup.

"Hey, you should control your little Night Fury. He almost killed me!" Snotlout yelled at Hiccup.

"First of all, Toothless is not small," said Hiccup as he placed his right hand on Toothless' forehead, "And second of all, I told him to do so."

"Then you should learn how to give an order to a deadly dragon!"

"First things first," said Hiccup disregarding Snotlout, "As you can see, the Nadder Team's dragons are all Nadders, and the riders are all females."

"Yeah, I wonder why that could happen," commented Fishlegs sarcastically.

"I and Astrid will act as their instructors when we don't have to mess around with you guys and a gal until they can lead themselves. Do I need to read their names?"

"No thank you. I don't want to memorize eight weird names," Snotlout said.

A couple of hours later, when the sky was dark enough to see the stars, Riders and the Nadder Team returned back to the village. The field on top of the cliffs remained absolutely silent, except the breathing sound of two young Vikings. They cuddled each other when they sat by the edge of the cliffs. Their feet dangled in the air, which the undulatory sea located about seventy feet below them.

Besides the beach was the dock, which some Berkians were holding torches in their hands during night-time patrol. Ships were connected to the stakes on the dock. Their sails drifted in the wind.

"Peace won't last long," Hiccup said as he placed a kiss in Astrid's hair, " Enjoy the valley, beach, sea, and life before they get covered by carcasses and blood."

"I know. It's just like the night before the Battle of Odin's Sea," Astrid responded as she lay on Hiccup's laps.

That wasn't a safe position, consider that the edge of the cliffs was only two inches away from her face. She put her arms around Hiccup's torso for safety.

"You know, there is a possibility that the war will go on forever. Maybe we won't be able to end the war before our deaths," Hiccup massaged her blond hair.

"It won't because we have you on our side. You defeated the Romans and you can kick the Berserker's ass as well."

"Why are you so sure about that?"

"It doesn't matter," Astrid withdrew her body and pulled Hiccup away from the edge of the cliffs.

"Hey, I still want to watch the Aurora," Hiccup objected.

Astrid pushed Hiccup to the ground as she lay beside him. The dark sky was adorned by stars and a bright moon. Toothless and Stormfly were lying on the grass ten yards away from them, napping. The air was chilly, so Astrid turned towards the Viking next to her and pressed her body against his.

Hiccup pulled her closer to him, gently rubbed her neck with his thumb. She placed her hand on his chest so that she could feel his breath and heartbeats.

They didn't say a word, just indulging the halcyon scenery in each other's arms.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Next morning, when the sky was ice blue, the grass was moist by dew, and the sea was covered by dense fog, a fleet of battleships was closing in from the south of the Island of Berk. The bows of the ships broke through the water and created waves of ripples. Some Thunderdrums that jumped out of the sea for air were stunned by the group of moving objects.

A division of the Las Cosmos Armada, Cosmos 5 was deployed by Dagur to the south of Berk. Soldiers filled the ships and decks were covered by heavy armors and weapons. A few miles away from Cosmos 5, a stronger and more powerful division was enveloped by the fog, waiting patiently for its debut.

Meanwhile, on the cliffs of Berk, Hiccup slightly opened his eyes, trying to adapt to the morning sunlight. He tried to get up but only to be pressed back to the ground.

Is Toothless lying on my stomach again? Hiccup thought as he turned his head to find the Night Fury.

The black dragon was hanging on a tree next to him and Stormfly was curled up like a giant, blue, spiky ball under it. Those two dragons were impossible to wake up when they were seriously trying to sleep.

So the force on his stomach wasn't from Toothless. Hiccup lifted his head up, a blonde with messy hair was sleeping soundly on his body. She wrapped her hands around his limbs and buried her head in his chest.

"Oh, man," Hiccup gently lay his hands on her back. Through her red jacket clothes, he could feel her soft and tender body.

"Mmmm…" Astrid gave a slight moan as she turned her body around. Lying face up and across Hiccup's stomach, Hiccup could observe her perfect body curve. He touched Astrid's kransen that she wore every day, which was a leather stripe with a few spikes on it. Hiccup thought about the day that Astrid would replace it with a "wedding crown".

Hiccup tried to lift her up and place her beside him so that he could free himself. But the movements from his hands woke Astrid from her dream.

"Hmmph…" groaned Astrid as she stretched her arms in the air. When Astrid opened her eyes, they met the two emerald eyes above her, "Morning, babe..." She reached her hand towards Hiccup's jaw.

She wasn't the spitfire that Hiccup met when they were 15 anymore. Nobody knew how Hiccup changed or managed her. Snotlout believed that he applied some sort of dark magic or drug to Astrid, but what Hiccup used was a simple "dragon-trick" to win her hand.

Before the duo could start their morning routine, which Snotlout called it "morning intimacy", Stormfly abruptly rose her head. As a tracker class dragon, Stormfly's acute sense of smell saved the day multiple times. This time, she sensed something huge from the opening sea.

She sent out a loud screech as an alarm, and Toothless nearly fell down from the tree. Stormfly stood up from the ground and headed to the edge of the cliffs.

"What's wrong, girl?" Astrid asked as Hiccup helped her to get on her feet.

When the duo reached Stormfly, they could see some black dots scattered on the sea. Hiccup took out his spyglass and examined the water with it. Through the glass, Hiccup could see the sails of heavy armored ships with the most recognizable symbol in the Archipelago.

"The Berserkers!" Hiccup shouted, "More than twenty ships due South."

"They launched the attack with just twenty ships?" Astrid asked.

"Umm… Seems like it," Hiccup double-checked the incoming fleet with his spyglass then handed it over to Astrid.

"But we still can't let them through," Astrid said with her right eye over the spyglass, "They are carrying long distance catapults and ballistas, and they would destroy our village without landing."

"Toothless, distress call," Hiccup called up.

Toothless raised his head and launched one plasma blast into the air and exploded. Purple flames spread across the sky and created the signal which everyone on Berk could see. A few minutes later, someone blew the huge, dragon-like horn by the arena.

Stoick and Gobber were shouting at the Vikings to command them to prepare the ships. People started running between the dock and storehouse carrying weapons and armors. They began to encourage each other and pray to Thor that they would win the battle. The Riders and the Nadder Team appeared on the cliffs with their weapons. The twins were carrying two seven-feet long spears, Snotlout was holding one Gronckle-iron mace in each hand, and Fishlegs' weapon was a dagger, which Tuffnut thought was useless in an air battle. The Nadder Team's girls were using the same weapons, eight Ulfberht swords. After Trinianka got released from the dungeon, Bucket, and Mulch joint with Stoick and Gobber on Stoick's battleship, which Stoick named it "the Thundercloud".

"Incoming!" a Viking shouted when a Viking-size metal arrow flew across the sky and towards a ship by the dock.

Vikings jumped overboard to avoid the possible direct contact that the arrow would cause. The arrow pierced through the armor on the starboard and created a chink on the hull of the ship, and water started to pour in.

"They are the Berserkers, and we need to leave the dock so that we won't leave ourselves vulnerable," bellowed Stoick as "the Thundercloud" sailed towards the fleet of ships.

All the Berkian ships followed their chief into the open sea. The Berkians armed themselves with crossbows which could launch an arrow that could cut through a light piece of armor.

Rocks and arrows filled the sky when the two fleets of ships contacted each other. Dead bodies were thrown into the ocean with arrows in their chests or got their heads removed. Men battled to the death when they boarded their enemy's ships.

Stoick jumped onto a Berserk ship and started bashing the soldiers on the deck. He held two axes in his hands and chopped down a soldier's left arm the second when he boarded that ship. He made his way across the deck by battering the Berserkers. They tried to surround Stoick and kill him but they only received their one-way ticket to Valhalla.

He made his way to the commander's chamber after he cleared the deck. The deck was covered by at least twenty incomplete bodies of Berserk soldiers. Blood dyed the yellowish wooden deck into dark red.

Stoick smashed the brittle door of the commander's chamber into pieces and found a small figure in the room, holding a blade in his hand. The figure stared at the map on his desk like he didn't even notice how brutal things got.

"Hey," Stoick yelled at him, "Do you know what's going on out there? Your men are dying."

No answers.

"Do you even understand what I'm saying?"

Silence.

"He doesn't," someone behind Stoick said quietly.

Stoick turned around, held up an ax to defend himself. A Viking that was his size walked towards him, holding a spear in his hand. The head of the spear was barbed, so it could cause much more damage than a normal spear.

"Alvin?" Stoick gasped.

"Yeah, that's me, old friend," Alvin said as he stood in front of Stoick, "I believe that you are surprised, right?"

At this moment, a Berkian reached the commander's chamber as well. He watched with open-mouth as Alvin turned to the interrupter.

"Chief, is that…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Alvin pulled his spear out from that Berkian's chest. He fell to the ground with disbelieving on his face.

"You half-troll traitor!" Stoick shouted.

"Not traitor," Alvin objected, "The Berkians and the Outcasts are two different tribes. You thought we are your ally, but that's not the case."

Stoick charged towards Alvin, swinging his axes in the air. Alvin didn't defend himself with the spear, but he started retreating back to the deck.

"Come back here, you silly goose," bellowed Stoick as he chased Alvin to the deck.

The two giant Vikings sprinted across the open area when the battle between the Cosmos 5 and the Berkians was still going. Men were shouting at each other and throwing weapons across the sea. Dark smoke ascended from burning ships, and masts were cut down by arrows.

When Alvin reached the bow of the ship, the sea was behind him and Stoick was in front of him. He couldn't defeat Stoick on his own, and he knew it well.

"Now you have no place to go," said Stoick as he closed the gap between him and Alvin.

* * *

 **Sorry for the waite. I didn't have enough time to write in the past few days. Hope you enjoyed the story so far, because the next few chapters will be about the war. Please leave a review below and tell us your thoughts toward the story. Thank you for your support.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Alvin threw his spear towards Stoick and jumped overboard into the water. Stoick dodged the spear just in time, but the head of the spear still created a scratch on his arm. There was no splashing of water as Stoick had expected.

"See you next time, old friend," Alvin yelled at Stoick.

A small boat picked Alvin up and headed towards another ship with the Outcast symbol on the port side. Stoick tried to jump onto Alvin's boat from the ship, but archers on the boat launched arrows at Stoick and forced him to fall back and look for cover.

On the small boat, Alvin picked up a bow and shot an arrow towards Stoick. His arrow-shooting ability was way better than his men. The wooden arrow with a sharp metal head sliced accurately down Stoick's beard, not making any blood.

The beard was one of the most important symbols a Viking could have, and the beard was as important as the Viking helmet. No Vikings could withstand the stigma of losing his beard. Stoick froze for a second, and then he reached his hand to his jaw, trying to feel the beard that he had when he was just a teenager.

Nothing. Stoick could feel nothing but his bare skin. Then he looked down, his brown, thick beard was lying on the deck. Stoick's face gently turned bright red due to extreme anger.

"You pathetic skinny jellyfish! One day I will chop all the Outcasts into pieces of shit !" yelled Stoick, "You will regret this!"

But Alvin and his men totally ignored Stoick's swearing, they pointed at the beardless Vikings and burst into laughter.

Stoick threw one of his axes towards the small boat. The axe rolled like a wheel when it flew across the air. But Alvin's boat was too far from Stoick, so the axe landed into the sea and created a small splash of water.

"You really need to do some exercises, Stoick the Vast," one archer shouted.

As Alvin boarded another Berserk battleship, the Cosmos 5 started to retreat into the dense fog. When the Berserker soldiers jumped back to their own ships, the ballistas and catapults provided covering fire for them. Even though some Berkians tried to board some Berserker's ships, but only to get pushed back.

"They are leaving?" Gobber said as he covered himself with a shield. An arrow stroke the wooden shield right after he lifted up the shield

"Seems like it," Spitelout responded. These two Berkians fought shoulder-to-shoulder during battle.

"We need to pursue and attack them. They need to pay for their action," Stoick commanded.

"Oh, there you are, chief," Gobber said, then he paused, "Wait, where is your beard."

"Alvin cut it off with an arrow."

"Alvin? He is working for Dagur? I didn't picture that," said Spitelout.

"Yeah, I guess we are on our own. Now we need to catch up with that running-away fleet and chop them into pieces," Stoick said.

"But they are about to enter the fog, and we won't have any advantages in the fog," suggested Gobber.

"So you have a better plan? Just look at how many Vikings we lost," Stoick raised his tone.

"Carry the seven…"

"Thirty-five."

"The number doesn't matter. We lost a lot, and the Berserkers and Alvin have to pay for their action," Stoick said as he jumped onto "Thundercloud" and set the sail, "Let's teach them a lesson in killing."

Gobber and Spitelout looked at each other, then they turned to the Berkians that they were leading. Arguing with Stoick when he was mad wasn't a smart idea. Stoick could turn into a monster when he really got provoked.

"Stop! Dad, don't!" Hiccup yelled as Toothless and Stormfly landed on the deck of "Thundercloud".

"What, son?" Stoick questioned his son.

"This is a trap. I bet that the Berserkers are begging you to pursue them into the fog so that they can ambush you," said Hiccup.

Other Riders and the Nadder Team landed behind Hiccup and Astrid. They just came into the battle, so they missed the main fighting scene. They only sank one battleship before the Berserkers could go into the fog.

"If we don't wipe them out here, they will keep coming and endanger Berk," Stoick objected.

"They aren't the only fleet that Dagur has. Another fleet is waiting to ambush you in the fog, or maybe two," Astrid supported Hiccup.

"Then we can destroy those ships as well," Stoick said as he swung his axe in the air.

"No, the dragons will lose their accuracies in the fog. Without the assist from us, you won't win the battle." Fishlegs said.

"Well, we pushed them back without you guys just a couple of minutes ago."

"Because they wanted you to think that they couldn't defeat you. So that you will follow them into the fog."

"I don't think so. It is my obligation to protect Berk, and I want to decrease the possibility of losing Berk as much as possible. We should attack them and end the Berserkers once and for all."

"Dad, just listen to me, you can't win this one. Just let them go, and we will have another chance to revenge for our lost… and your beard," Hiccup begged.

Stoick glared at the fog in front of them. The fog was way too dense that they couldn't see a thing in it. He thought about Hiccup's words for a minute. Hiccup said the similar sentence to him about five years ago, after Toothless showed up during Hiccup's final dragon killing exam. And Hiccup was right at that time, the Red Death nearly wiped out all the Berkians.

An arrow landed on the deck of "Thundercloud". Someone shot it from somewhere in the fog. The head of the arrow was buried deep into the wooden deck due to its strong impact. The arrow carried a small letter with it.

Stoick bent down and picked up the letter. He scanned through it, and his face slowly turned red like fire. Then he exploded.

He tore the letter into pieces and threw them into the sea and yelled and cursed.

"You want to be a jerk? Then I will be a jerk as well! You disgusting pests! " he shouted at the fog.

Gobber was stunned by Stoick's reaction. Stoick never acted like that. Gobber knew Stoick's mad mode, and it was way milder than this time. Stoick's yelling was similar to the sound of Thor's lightning.

"Ready the ships. We are going to kill those pieces of craps!" yelled Stoick as he threw his arms in the air and started cursing at the Berserkers and the Outcasts again.

"Uh, dad, no matter what was in that letter, you really need to calm down," Hiccup said to Stoick.

"Gobber, you and I will lead one dozen of ships as the vanguard. Spitelout, you lead the remaining ships as back-ups," Stoick assigned the mission disregarding Hiccup's advice.

"Common, dad, you know I'm right. Don't let your emotion control you," Hiccup chased behind Stoick.

Berkians started preparing for another battle even though some of them still had injuries from the previous battle.

"Gobber, I want those sails fixed. Spitelout, bring more catapults," Stoick went through the fleet on the back of Skullcrusher, "I want those ships to be ready in ten minutes."

"Let's get started, you heard the man," Gobber said as he reloaded a crossbow.

After realizing that it was impossible to stop his dogged father from charging into the dense fog, Hiccup climbed up to Toothless' back and turned to the Riders and Nadder Team.

"Well, Hiccup, that's what happened years ago," Stormfly walked towards Hiccup with Astrid on her back.

"I know, but I won't let him take the risk alone," Hiccup said, "We will act as their air support."

* * *

 **Sorry for the late update. Hopefully you enjoyed reading my story. Please leave a review below. Thank you.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

As the fog swallowed the Berkians battleships, the Riders and the Nadder team followed behind, forming a diamond in the air, preparing to blow up the possible Berserker ships. Everything was blurry and unclear in the fog, and ships needed to stay within earshot in order to communicate.

Since the end of the war against the Romans, Berkians never encountered a battle that would make them nervous and question themselves about winning.

"Thundercloud" led the fleet with Stoick standing on the deck. As the ships moved into the fog, Stoick recalled years ago when they were heading for Helheim's gate, with Toothless chained up on the deck.

"This place is way too quiet for a sea ambush," said Gobber.

"Keep your ears sharp, bud," Hiccup said to Toothless.

A sea stack showed up in front of the fleet. The top of the sea stack was hidden in fog, which was a great place to have a crossbow team.

"Check out the sea stack, bud," after Hiccup finished his sentence, Toothless detached from the Riders and flew up, closer and closer to the top.

Some ambiguous figures could be seen as Hiccup and Toothless closed their distance. Those figures looked like some ghosts were wandering around in Midgard. A shadow of a ballista pointing at the sea gave away the Berserker' position.

"Are those…"

"Attack!"

Two dragon root arrows shot Toothless when someone shouted that word out loud. Rocks and nets were launched from the top of the sea stack while another fleet of ships with the symbol of a Skrill on their sails appeared from the side.

"Off the port quarter!" Gobber yelled as he ducked behind the mast for protection. Three arrows buried deep into the wood but didn't pierce through.

Toothless lost control of himself and started falling towards the sea. His black, scale-covered body spun in the air and yanked Hiccup off the saddle.

"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted as he was trying to open his own wings.

"Fishlegs, go and get Toothless and rest of you guys attack the sea stack," Astrid gave an order to the Riders and the Nadder team, "I think they fortified it. I will get Hiccup."

"Ohh, unexpected," Snotlout said with a smirk as he and Hookfang flew towards the sea stack with other riders.

As Meatlug grabbed the unconscious Toothless, a slungshot caught Hiccup in midair. Astrid could clearly hear someone on the sea stack "woo-hoo" ed in excitement.

Hiccup couldn't use his wings while the ropes of a slungshot restrained him, so he dropped to the sea like a piece of rock. He struggled hard to break free but failed to do so.

"Ahhhhhh!"

The Berkians were too busy to notice their chief's son was falling from the sky because they engaged with Cosmos 2, which was hiding in the fog beside the sea stack waiting for the Berkians to come.

A Nadder dove down from the air with Astrid on her back. Stormfly caught Hiccup in her big claws after avoided an arrow from nowhere.

"You got him?" Astrid asked.

Stormfly screeched in response and turned her head towards the boy in her claws that was tangled in some ropes. Hiccup gave a gentle smile to her.

"Good girl," Astrid patted Stormfly's neck and looked down at Hiccup with a sly smile, "Need some help?"

"Yeah," Hiccup replied, "Do you have something sharp so that I can cut myself free."

His long, auburn hair was waving in the air as Stormfly was flying across the sky attacking Berserker ships. He couldn't do anything but to relax in Stormfly's grip.

"You know what? I like the view of you in the air," Astrid said as she blocked an arrow with her axe, "I wish right now we are on your bed so that someone won't be able to fight for the dominance with ropes on."

"Common, Astrid, this isn't the time for that. We are in the middle of a battle and I'm in the air," Hiccup almost begged, "Just give me your axe so that I can free myself."

"Then you need to promise me that next time when we do _things_ I can tie you up."

" _Excuse_ me?"

"Or you will remain restrained by that slungshot and held in Stormfly's claws."

"This conversation is feeling very one-sided," Hiccup sighed while he did some useless resists, "I don't have a choice, do I?"

"This might be my only chance to do something like that," Astrid laughed as she winked her eyes at Hiccup, "You would've pinned me to the wall and do whatever you wanted to do if I asked you this question at your hut yesterday."

"You are killing me, Astrid," Hiccup thought about Astrid's demand for a sec, "Fine, _deal_ , give me your axe and tell me where is Toothless?"

"Yeah!" Astrid shouted with excitement and threw a punch in the air. After she calmed herself down, she passed her axe to Hiccup, "Fishlegs got him, but I guess he is unconscious right now. He got shot by two dragon root arrows."

"There will be repercussions," Hiccup complained.

"I'll take my chances, _sir_ ," Astrid said in a weird tone.

Hiccup cut through the slungshot and climbed onto Stormfly's saddle and sat there, and put his arms around Astrid's waist as a seatbelt. He looked down at the sea, the sea was covered by ships, debris, and dead bodies. The Berkians were outnumbered by one to seven or more. The bows of the Berserker ships were made by iron and forged into a cone. These iron bows were strong enough to break through Berkians wooden ships and create a large hole on the hull.

Hiccup could see a huge Viking smashing everyone with two maces in his hand. When some Berserkers tried to engage with him, they only got thrown away by an incredible force which they didn't have time to dodge or run away.

That figure was Stoick. Gobber and other Berkians fought beside him and were trying their best to protect their chief. This group of Vikings jumped from ships to ships, and every deck they boarded were covered by blood and parts of a body. The deck of "Thundercloud" was filled by dead Vikings that bodies were started to pile up.

The top of that sea stack was rebuilt into a giant turret by the Berserkers with shield walls protecting two over-sized catapults that could sink a ship in one hit and three ballistae with a rate of fire of forty arrows per minute or twenty slungshots per minute. At least two dozens of crossbow shooters were defending the turret with dragon root arrows.

The two catapults created a large amount of damage to the Berkians while the weapons on their ships couldn't reach the top of the sea stack. The Riders and the Nadder team tried to directly destroy the sea stack but failed.

Stoick knew that it was impossible to retreat while the Berserkers surrounded them up with more than 60 armored ships. The Berkians already lost more than half of their ships and men, but they still formed their ranks and fought as one.

"Nigerlina, let the Nadder team constantly attack the sea stack," Hiccup shouted as Stormfly flew pass the riders, "Riders, disengage with the sea stack and help our fleet."

"Right behind you," Fishlegs said as Meatlug dove down towards a Berserker ship and destroyed its mast.

"I love this plan," Snotlout bellowed as he jumped off from Hookfang's back with an extra-sized bludgeon in his hand and landed on a Berserker ship's upper deck. He swung the bludgeon and knocked a Berserker overboard.

"Take this, you halitosis haddock!" Snotlout cheered as he struck a Berserker with a crossbow and smashed both his limbs and his crossbow into pieces, "Well, no offense, Hiccup."

"Right, right, do whatever you want, just try to find a way to save our ships," Hiccup murmured to himself as he drew his inferno and landed on the ship which Stoick and Gobber were swinging weapons like a windmill.

"Hiccup, what are you doing?" Astrid soon realized that Hiccup was gone, "If you want to help the fleet, you can use the dragons as well."

"Try to keep my dad out of trouble," Hiccup replied as he knocked out a ballista user and threw his body into the ocean.

"Well, if you want to do that," Astrid said as she also landed beside Hiccup and brought down a Berserker who tried to attack Hiccup from the back, "You need someone to watch your ass."

"That is very helpful, milady," Hiccup said as he launched three arrows by the ballista.

"I didn't fall in love with you because of your muscles and masculine performances."

"I know, otherwise you should be with…well, other Vikings like Dagur right now. And I will never get a girlfriend."

A Berserker ship crashed into the ship which the Berkians were fighting, and the iron bow created a giant hole on the deck and pushed some Berkians overboard. At least two dozens of Berserker soldiers boarded the ship with weapons. They were shouting at the top of their voices and threw their enemies into the water before they could react to the dramatic change in their battlefield.

Stoick and Gobber barely survived from the first wave of attack. Out of the twenty-five Berkians, they had four remaining. The Berserkers surrounded the remaining Berkians at the middle of the deck while more and more soldiers boarded that ship. Hiccup and Astrid hid by the stern, trying to find a way to save the giant-like Viking.

"What do you think? Right now we still have the opportunity to think before those big-bellied Vikings remove our heads," Astrid whispered as she held her axe tightly in her hands.

"Mmmm…" Hiccup scratched his head anxiously.

Astrid stared at his hand movement for a moment, and slowly and unconsciously reached her hand towards his head and replaced his hand by digging her fingers into his hair. It felt like a million years since she touched his hair, and she totally ignored their situation. She wanted to feel his scalp and hear the sound that he usually made when she massaged him.

An arrow missed her by less than an inch and pulled her out from the daydreaming about Hiccup. She withdrew her hand quickly and nervously. Why did she have this feeling again? Astrid thought. In the past few weeks, she had countless dreams about him getting laid by her.

For Thor's sake, you better control your feelings. Astrid said to herself with a slight of guilt.

Surprisingly, during the time which Astrid dug her hand in his hair, Hiccup didn't protest or try to deny her hand. Seemed like he actually enjoyed this affection when arrows and rocks were flying around them and Vikings got their head removed by other Vikings.

"Ok, Astrid, here is what we'll do."


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi guys! It had been a while since the last update, I just want to say thank you to all readers. This is my first fanfic, and I know I messed up during writing a lot. I was glad to see people reading my story. Please leave a review below.**

* * *

Chapter 16:

"Wait, is that Dagur?" before Hiccup could operate the crossbow, Astrid pulled him back and pointed at the battleship which crashed into the one they were on.

Astrid was talking about a muscular Viking holding a double-bladed axe in his hand. Another tall figure and several Berserker soldiers armed with long spears followed behind him. They walked toward the Berkians who got pushed to the end of the deck.

"Greetings! My friends from the Island of Berk," Dagur raised his hands, "That's very easy to tell who you are… Gobber the Belch, Hoark the Haggard, Starkard, some other Berkians, and Stoick the Vast. I wonder where are the rest of the Berkians. Oh, hang on, they are all dead. Haha!"

Dagur laughed while he made fun of the names. Apparently, Dagur's plan was to provoke the Berkians, and it worked. Stoick wasn't a man who could withstand the unfriendly words that directly offended himself and his ancestors. His body leaned forward when he was preparing for a charge, but Gobber held his arm, trying to pull him back. The Berserkers were using extra-long spears that could bring down a Viking from seven feet away. The Berserkers knew that they wouldn't stand a chance in front of Stoick and Gobber, so they decided to take them out at a distance that the Berserkers could reach their enemies, but their enemies couldn't reach the Berserkers. Stoick was using maces, which didn't have a long combat range.

"Yeah, you should control your temper and use some strategies during a sea battle," Dagur raised his axe to his front and studied its blades while talking to Stoick, "You see, right now you've been surrounded, and you can't do anything except jump overboard into the ocean and drown from death."

"Then how about I chop your head down and use your skull as a teacup?" Stoick shouted as a counter to what Dagur had just said.

Dagur, surprisingly, did a good job in self-control. According to his behaviors in the past, he should be smashing things and insulting the Berkians right now. Even Savage and the Berserker soldiers held tight their weapons with anger.

"That's not gonna happen, because you won't have a hand to chop my head down by then," Dagur said, then he abruptly pointed at Stoick with his axe and shouted, "Rush them, lads!"

"Ahhhhhh!" Both Berkians and Berserkers bellowed at the top of their voices and raised their weapons, charging at each other. The Berkians were outnumbered but they showed no fear while the Berserkers had totally gone berserk.

Before the leading Berserker could stab his spear into Stoick's chest, an arrow appeared in his throat, fresh blood splattered out from the cut. The soldier who charged besides him was shot by another arrow in the head, and the following soldier's right leg got penetrated by an arrow as well. A mysterious archer who was using a high firing rate crossbow picked the Berserkers out one by one with incredible accuracies. Just in a few seconds, the Berserkers had already lost six men.

Hiccup was standing at the stern of the ship, operating a ballista which the Berserkers mounted there before the battle. The ballista that the Berserkers invented used box magazines as its ammunition and each magazine could load twenty arrows. This fearless weapon could empty a magazine within twenty seconds.

Arrows flew towards the Berserkers like raindrops and forced them to use their shields or take cover. Astrid was helping Hiccup switching the mags so that they could constantly firing at the Berserkers.

Dagur ran towards the port of the ship with Savage and a few soldiers holding large shields to protect him. Another ballista was located at the port, so Dagur could counter Hiccup and Astrid without running all the way from the bow to stern while risking his life.

"Hiccup!" before two arrows could land on where Hiccup was standing, Astrid dove down at him and pushed him away, right before the arrows could drill into Hiccup's body.

"This is our chance," Stoick said as the Berkians attacked the Berserkers while they were still avoiding the arrows.

Stoick picked up a Berserker and threw him overboard, and picked up the spear that a soldier dropped on the deck, and stabbed it into another Berserker's spine and tore it apart. Savage was hit in the chest by Gobber's hammer when Savage tried to attack Stoick from the back. Under Gobber's great force, Savage fell to the deck and created some cracks on the wooden platform.

Savage was a true elite sword-fighter comparing to the other Berserkers. He stepped up quickly and successfully blocked Gobber's hammer when it tried to break his torso.

"You are good at this, lad," Gobber said sarcastically as he threw a punch at Savage.

"Thank you for your comment, old man," Savage gave a sly smile even though he just got hit in the face by Gobber.

Savage took a step to the side while Gobber charged towards him, caused Gobber to lose his balance. Savage stroke Gobber's stomach with his knee and brought him to the ground by hitting Gobber's jaw with his elbow. Gobber's head flipped back and he backed up in order to recover his injury. He twisted his neck and placed his only hand on his jaw, trying to release the pain.

"How does that feel?" Savage laughed as he spun his sword in the air, "I thought Berkians should be…"

Before he could finish his sentence, someone picked him up from behind and threw him across the deck. Savage smashed into the mast and landed heavily among a pile of barrels.

"Better than the Berserkers," Starkard said as he spat on the deck, "Damn, he smells."

"Thank you, Starkard," Gobber said as he switched his prosthetic hand into a hammer, "Let's do some cleaning."

The two Vikings pounded toward the Berserkers. Now the hunters became the hunted. Under the protection from a few heavy-armored Berserkers, Dagur tried to gather up his men and push the Berkians back.

"Ok, that's it. Give me my spear," Dagur said as he took off his armor.

A soldier put a seven feet long metal spear into Dagur's hands. This weapon looked more like a harpoon than a spear. Its head was curved in order to cause maximum damage when pulling it out from the victim's body. Dagur's blacksmiths made this weapon based on the Gungnir, Odin's spear.

"All right, someone takes out the two pathetic haddocks at the stern, and I will finish the Berkians," Dagur penetrated his spear into a Berkian's chest and pulled it out instantly, carrying a small piece of a limb. Gore spilled out from the fist-sized hole as the Berkian fell down on the deck.

Two soldiers turned a catapult towards the stern where Astrid and Hiccup were operating the ballista. Without hesitation, they launched a Viking-sized boulder.

"Incoming!" Astrid shouted as she and Hiccup jumped away from the ballista.

The boulder completely crushed the ballista into pieces and even went through the ship, created a large hole on the keel and sank into the ocean. Water started rushing in and the ship started sinking slowly.

"Odin's beard, I didn't say sink the ship," Dagur bellowed at the two soldiers as he sliced a Berkian's head down.

"That was just a mistake," a soldier replied.

Astrid and Hiccup started running towards the bow while the water was chasing behind them.

The sea stack was captured by the Riders and Nadder team, at least that was some good news because they didn't need to worry about arrows coming from the sky.

"Stormfly, get us out of here!" Astrid yelled towards the sky, "Leave Dagur here."

"No, dad and other Berkians are still on this ship," Hiccup picked up a shield.

"Very well," Astrid thought for a moment, "How about we summon all the Riders?"

"Summon is a strong word."

"Who cares. I thought we are the commanders of the Riders."

"All right, but I don't feel right when I'm bossing people around."

"That's what you always do in the bedroom!"

Green Zippleback gas covered the deck, and they burst into flame when a spark of fire landed on the deck. The explosion spread across the deck and pushed some Berserkers and barrels on the deck into the ocean.

Barf and Belch hovered above the deck, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were launching arrows by the two crossbows that they took from another ship.

"Sorry that we are late for the party," Tuffnut shouted as he head-shot a Berserker who survived the explosion, "This is Valhalla Express!"

Hookfang landed beside the port among some new arrived Berserkers. Snotlout jumped down from the saddle and swung his hammer and knocked over a Berserker who was trying to pick up a crossbow.

The lower deck was already filled with water and the ship continued to sink. Some Berserkers were trapped beneath the deck and were drowned to death. Stormfly ignited the deck on fire when she flew across the ship.

Dagur's men started retreating to the starboard as more and more Riders boarded this half-sank ship. Stoick picked up one of Dagur's guard and threw him into the ocean.

"Sir, we need to abandon this ship, otherwise the Berkians will kill us all!" Savage shouted as he blocked a spin shot from Stormfly with his shield.

"All right, but before we leave, I need to give them a warning," Dagur said slowly as he pointed at Stoick, who was crushing the Berserkers with his maces, with his spear, "I want Hiccup to remember me that one day, Berk will be mine."

Dagur took a step back, took off his helmet and armor, brought back his spear, and threw the spear into the sky towards Stoick the Vast. The spear spun at a high speed when cutting through the air It flew over the deck like a comet traveling across the sky. The iron head of the spear was reflecting the bright goldish light of the sun before it penetrated through the chest of its victim. The tip of the spear destroyed the heart and cut its way out of the body with blood dripping down from the curve.

"Stoick!" Gobber yelled as the giant body of his old friend fell to the wooden deck of "Thundercloud" with Dagur's spear buried in his chest. Stoick's helmet detached from his head and rolled to the side.

"Dad! No!" Hiccup cried and ran towards Stoick's body with both furious and scare flashing on his face.

"Bullseye," Dagur murmured as he jumped onto the small boat which a new team of archers was waiting for him.

Astrid picked up a bow on the ground and launched an arrow at the leaving boat which carried Dagur. Dagur blocked the arrow with his axe as the boat sailed away, "You need to practice more, young lady!"

Following Dagur, the Berserkers retreated back to their ships and headed back to their island across the fog, leaving debris and bodies floating on the sea. Some ships' decks were still burning with flame and black smoke ascended into the sky. The rest of the Riders and Nadder team landed on "Thundercloud" with cuts and wounds on their skin and dragons, marking the great battle they had come through.

Berkians gathered on the deck of "Thundercloud" and around Stoick's body while they dropped their helmets and weapons on the deck. Hiccup knelt beside his father's carcass and put his arms around his cooling body, tears mixed with blood on his face dropped onto his father's clothes.

"No… Please, dad…" Hiccup wasn't ready to take something like that.

He remembered that his father was always pushing him to prepare for becoming a chief, and that really annoyed him, But when the person who pushed Hiccup a lot was gone, Hiccup didn't feel any better. Right now no matter what Stoick was going to say, Hiccup just wanted to hear his father's words again, at least a good bye.

There was no need to check Stoick's heartbeat because Dagur's spear already tore apart Stoick's heart and some limbs the moment it went into his chest. Gobber stood behind Hiccup while Astrid made her way through the Berkians.

Through the blurry fog, the Berkians could still hear the vicious laugh from Dagur the Deranged.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

As the remaining ships sailed into the harbor, most ships were covered by scars from a great battle. Arrows stuck in wooden decks, large cracks and holes on ports and starboards created by boulders which were launched by catapults, sails were torn apart, and the dragon portraits on bows were burned. Just like years ago after a failed raid against the Red Death's nest.

The Berkians lost more than two-thirds of Vikings. They didn't carry the deads. Before they started heading back to Berk, they performed a formal funeral for all of the Vikings who gave their lives during the battle. Their chieftain, Stoick the Vast, was one of them.

Before Stoick launched the mission to pursue the Berserkers, he only left one-fourth of the Berkians on the island to protect their homeland, and a lot of them were olds and next generations.

Gothi, Ack, and a few Vikings were waiting for the fleet by the dock. They were shocked as the incomplete ships stopped before them. They looked at each other with sadness on their faces.

The dragons didn't flap around the fleet as they usually did. They lay quietly on the decks, and their riders sat beside them, stroking their necks or heads to comfort these fire-breathing creatures.

On the dock, Hiccup was staring blankly at the open water with Toothless standing next to him. During the funeral a few hours ago, he was the first Viking to launch the ignited arrows, indicating that right after Stoick's death, Hiccup Haddock automatically took over the command and the throne of Berk. But Hiccup felt the world was so empty and quiet without that mountain-like Viking around, and he couldn't hear anything when he witnessed his father fell to the deck with Dagur's spear in his chest. Of course Toothless and Astrid could accompany him for the rest of his life, but neither his best friend nor his girlfriend could replace the importance of Stoick to Hiccup.

Astrid stood beside Hiccup and put her right arm around his shoulder, and gently places a kiss on Hiccup's cheek. The Berkians were used to the "small" affections that this couple showed in front of the public at all time. This time, Hiccup didn't respond to her action as he normally would. He stayed silent while Toothless gently licked his palm.

"Everything will be fine. We will find Dagur and tear him apart," Astrid tried to comfort him even though her words were shaking.

Gobber and Spitelout helped Gothi to treat the wounded Vikings. Even though Gobber lost his best friend in this world, but he didn't have the time to feel sad. He needed to step up and help the Berkians to recover from the great loss, and also assist their new chief.

"This world feels so empty without him, Astrid," Hiccup whimpered, "I… don't know what to do next."

"Your father was a great Viking warrior, but he was not your whole world. He was your guider in your life. After you found the path, the guider disappears. And you need to complete your task on your own. The guider can't shield you forever," Astrid stood in front of Hiccup, gazing at his emerald eyes.

Hiccup remained silent.

"When the time comes, you need to step up on your own. When the time comes, you need to believe in yourself. Right now you are the chief, you can't be the baby anymore. You have a group of tough Vikings to lead, and an enemy before you who took your father's life. You are the wisest, most determined Viking I know."

"When did you come up with this stuff?" Hiccup asked. The whimper in his voice was gone and replaced by the soft, dreamy sound that Astrid was familiar with.

"That doesn't matter. What matter is that you are the leader right now, and we have businesses to finish. Don't let the sadness break you or slow you down."

"Sorry to interrupt, Chief, but right now I believe that we should start rebuilding a new fleet and armed force. We don't have time for cuddling or kissing," behind them, Gobber's voice appeared.

Hiccup and Astrid turned around and found out that the rest of the Berkians, led by Gobber and the Riders, were standing behind them the whole time. Even though they knew that a disaster struck their tribe, they remained strong and sharp.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the Island of Berserk.

Unlike the Berkians who got their ass kicked and ran away, the Berserkers were throwing all kinds of parties to celebrate their first victory. Campfires lightened the dark sky. Heather, who was the commander of Cosmos 3, she and her division didn't directly involved in the battle but were viewed as heroes of the day as well. Soldiers were lifting their captains and commanders up in the air until they threw up.

By the harbor, hundreds of battleships docked in silent. Even though they won an important battle, but Dagur didn't let the guard down. He doubled the patrol ships and teams and put extra guards by the docks. Dagur walked to where Cosmos 2 docked their ships and found the flagship of that division.

Cosmos 2, which directly encountered the Berkians during the battle, endured the most losses for the Las Cosmos Armada. Of the 65 battleships they had before the battle, only 50 remained. But these losses weren't a huge deal to the Berserkers, they could provide fresh ships and soldiers to the Armada at any time.

The division commanders were the five best naval officers that Dagur had. The armada was like a five-headed dragon, and the five commanders were the five brains. The commander of Cosmos 2, which Stoick met in a ship during the battle, was the best of the best. Even though he was mute, but his importance to the whole armada was irreplaceable.

"Hey Irizan, my old friend," Dagur entered the commander's chamber of the flagship of Cosmos 2. A skinny young man was standing behind a giant table covered by different kinds of maps and ship models. His commander's sword was standing by his right leg.

Irizan, the commander of Cosmos 2, lifted his head from the maps and found Dagur in his room. Irizan wasn't an energetic person. All the captains and commanders joined the celebration on the island, but he remained in his chamber studying the maps, just like they did not win that battle.

"Working on your masterpiece?" Dagur said as he leaned on the table.

Irizan shrugged. Berserkers called his plans as masterpieces. His strategic brain designed the battle for the Berserkers during the last battle.

"What's in your brilliant brain?" Dagur pointed at his head.

Irizan thought for a moment, then he pointed at a place on the map with this sword. Dagur followed the tip of the sword.

"The Island of Berk? Your plan is to take Berk right away?" Dagur was surprised, "even though we greatly weakened their naval forces, but the cost of attacking their homeland would be too huge for us."

Irizan shook his head. Then he pulled out a sheet of paper covered with notes and handed it to Dagur. After Dagur scanned through the paper, his mouth curved into a sly smile.

Irizan then wrote a sentence on the map. Unlike Gothi who was mute as well, Gothi communicated with people by drawing, but Irizan preferred to write.

Dagur looked at the words, and he was both surprised and startled.

" _ **One-third of the Berserkers will die, one-third of the Berserkers will be conquered, and one-third of the Berserkers will win the glory."**_

* * *

 **A big thank you to all of the readers.**

 *****What do you think Irizan's words mean?**

 **Leave a review below and tell us your idea**


	18. Chapter 18

**Just for a reminder, this chapter contains some brief adult language . And this is a rated "M" chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 18:

"Savage, what's the states?" Dagur asked as he and Savage walked toward the dock.

After a discussion with Irizan, Dagur decided to launch a siege, right after the first battle, and their target was the Island of Berk itself. Irizan believed that sea battles weren't the right strategy toward a group of overly stubborn Vikings with fire-breathing war machines. This time, Dagur decided to dispatch all five divisions of Las Cosmos Armada, so that they could outnumber the Berkians even more than the previous battle.

Irizan was a careful commander. He supported the idea of decrease the number of casualties as low as possible, which wasn't Dagur's style. But Dagur decided to trust his best commander this time. If they lost this battle, Dagur was pretty sure that the Berserkers would win the war anyway.

"We resupplied Cosmos 2 with ten brand new battleships. Right now Cosmos 1 and 2 are ready for the battle. We filled their ships with arrows for the ballistae, boulders for the catapults, spears, and shields for the soldiers, and we add extra armor plates on decks, ports, and starboards," Savage read the information on a paper, "and archers are armed with Dragon Root arrows. Right now Cosmos 3,4, and 5 are still preparing. They received their ammo, but we are still waiting for them to reinforce their ships' armors."

"So what would happen to the Armada after we finished preparing?"

"According to our plan, we will have 120 battleships armed with ballistae, catapults, crossbows and each ship will have twenty armed soldiers."

"Good, how about our Skrills?"

"Right now we have five Skrills, and we controlled them all."

"Hopefully after this battle, we won't face the Berkians anymore," Dagur signed, "Berkians killed our tribesmen and our former Chief years ago. Right now it's the time for them to learn their lesson. Those barbarians will face a calamity that will wipe them out from the world."

"According to our deep-cover, Hiccup became the Chief after the death of Stoick. Right now he is trying to fortify the island. In her opinion, his decrepit defense won't even last long. But she recognized that Hiccup and the dragon Riders are planning something that might be a latent threat to our ships. She said that they might be able to concentrate the dragons' fire," Savage reported.

"That's not a big deal. We use Skrills as air support, and advance some ships to the shore and land some elite soldiers while the ships are providing covering fire," Dagur waved his hand, "How about her safety?"

"She said that right now the Berkians still view her as one of them. So I guess her identity is still hidden."

"We need her at the most important moment. Even though I still don't know when is that moment. I'll talk with Irizan about that," Dagur patted on Savage's back as a sign of encouragement, "Keep on the good work, we leave for Berk as soon as the Armada is ready."

"Gods help us during the war," Dagur added.

Footsteps came behind Dagur. Then Heather appeared beside him, with her axe in her right hand.

"How is your division?" Dagur asked.

Heather was the division commander for Cosmos 3, which served as the auxiliary team during the previous battle. Even though Cosmos 2 was the most abounded and had the most ships, but under Heather's strict and severe training, Cosmos 3 could be the most elite division.

"What do you expect? Some assholes were busy mentally laying me so I don't think they would finish their work on time."

"What… who has the guts to do that? I'm going to remove his, or her, head because he or she was trying to lay with my sister in their imaginations," Dagur shouted.

"What if the person was Irizan?" Heather teased him.

"Well, if Irizan did that, I guess I'll let it slide. His importance is… well… beyond my sister's virginity," Dagur quickly calmed down when he heard the name Irizan. He gave a lot of respect to Irizan. Not only because Irizan was his best division commander, but he was the man whom his father, Oswald, assigned to be Dagur's right-hand man.

"If you still have your virginity anyway," Dagur shrugged, "I need a real working brain during the war."

* * *

After the last Viking left the Great Hall after lunch, the Hall turned empty. The door was open, and the tapestries with ancient Viking symbols in the Hall gently drifted when wind whistled in. Right now most of the Berkians were constructing coastal defenses along the harbor, cliffs, and beach. Some Vikings were on patrol, looking for possible insults from the Berserkers. The trusty Dragon Riders accompanied by the Nadder team were romping around in the air, as usual, while practicing their fighting techniques. But for the Chief and the highly possible future Chieftess, they were not doing what they were supposed to be doing.

In one of the most secluded place on the Island of Berk, the cove, Stormfly and Toothless constantly careening into each other for fun at the place which Hiccup made a connection with Toothless years ago. Their riders, Astrid and Hiccup enjoyed their time in each other's arms at a corner of the cove. The stream in the cove still sparkled under the sunlight and a peaceful atmosphere covered this paradisical area.

Even though Hiccup could serve his chieftain duties, but he still didn't fully recover from the loss of his father, and Astrid was in the cove with Hiccup to reassure him.

"Are you trying to become my consort or something?" Hiccup asked while Astrid ran her fingers through Hiccup's messy hair.

"Well, you are depressed and just sad, right? Don't lie to me," Astrid said as she ran her fingers down toward Hiccup's face and jaw.

"If you say so," Hiccup responded in a quiet voice, "I know I should step up, but I just felt… lonely."

"Lonely? You have a Night Fury and a beautiful girl by your side."

"But not an over-sized Viking which kept telling me about how to become a chief."

"Listen, Hiccup, I've been through this when I lost my Uncle Finn, but that didn't stop me from becoming the strongest girl on Berk. In fact, that helped me to become the strongest girl on Berk."

"That makes more sense."

"We need you. Berk needs you. We can't fight the Berserkers without a leader, and I would like to have the original Hiccup back."

"Right, I guess I can make it work."

"Then I guess everything will be back on track soon."

"So…"

"So what?"

"What do we do now?"

"Because I believe I had said enough, so we can enjoy our time together when we still have the time to enjoy each other," Astrid said with a sly smile on her face as she pinned Hiccup's arms to the ground.

"Look at you two! How was the refreshment?" Snotlout pointed at Hiccup and Astrid as they met the Dragon Riders and the Nadder team on the cliffs.

Unlike Hiccup and Astrid's messy clothes and tangled hair, the members of the Riders and the Nadder team were obviously tired due to the fortification of the Island of Berk. Right now they were surprised to find out that when they were hard-working, their two leaders were… well… doing something that was only permitted to take place in a bedroom.

"What do you mean by 'refreshment'?" Hiccup asked as he searched through the bad on Toothless's saddle.

"The physical appearance of you two told us that you just fucked each other," added Ruffnut straightforwardly. She presented her opinion just like reading from a book, without any rhythms or emotions.

The girls in the Nadder team started "ooh-ing" and "ahh-ing" and teasing Hiccup and Astrid with some words, phrases, and inside jokes which Hiccup was sure that the girls learned from the twins.

"Fine, fine," Hiccup raised his hand and tried to calm them down, "we might be laying each other, but why are you guys so excited?"

"We were saying, chief, you two were having fun all over each other while the rest of the village were working to the point of straining ourselves too much?" surprisingly, Fishlegs backed Snotlout up, "You might need to think about the equality."

"Is there a problem Fishlegs?" Astrid said while she walked around Fishlegs and gave him her death glare.

"No, not at all," under Astrid's extreme pressure, Fishlegs finally returned to the shy boy that they all knew.

"All right, enough talking, get back to work," Hiccup finally realized that he needed to put an end to the talking.

"I better see our one-legged chief start working on our coastal defense with his girlfriend as well," Snotlout teased, "or shall I say fiancé?"

"Watch your mouth, Snot-face," Astrid said as she and Hiccup walked away from a group of annoying Vikings with their hands laced together.

"I was just telling the truth!" Snotlout yelled in disagreement.

"Nevermind that spitfire," Tuffnut put his right hand on Snotlout's shoulder, "I believe Hiccup will suffer after he marries Astrid. We just say our wishes and let Loki do the rest."

"How so?" Xerxianna asked with curious, "I believe they'll live 'happily ever after'."

"No, no," Ruffnut shook her head, "Tuffnut was saying that Hiccup will suffer in the bedroom after he marries Astrid."

Another round of "ohh" and "ahh" followed.

* * *

 **Hope you guys like it**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Just like the day before the battle which they killed the chief of Berk, the Berserkers were all excited about a thrilling mission awaiting for them. They believed that after that battle and after the Berkians lost their chief, they would take the Island of Berk just by some rounds of brief bombardments.

The siege that Irizan had planned was all about distracting the Berkian's defend forces and strike their weakest point. Irizan tried to use one division to draw most of the Berkians to the harbor and dispatch three divisions to Raven Point, and use the woods as a cover to secretly land around 70 ships of elite soldiers. This group of around 400 soldiers would travel through the woods and attack the Berkians from their back.

But the truth was, under Hiccup Haddock's lead, Berkians actually both physically and mentally recovered from the death of Stoick the Vast. Gobber and the dragon Riders would become Hiccup's trustiest supporters during the culmination of the war.

The Berkians totally fortified their island, not leaving any point open and vulnerable to the Berserkers. If necessary, they would choose to use scorched-earth strategy, and leaving nothing except a pile of bodies for the Berserkers.

They setted up catapults along the coastline and spreaded Monstrous Nightmare gels around the beach and rocks so that they could ignite the whole coast when the Berserkers started landing. The far side of the island and the forest would be guarded by the Nadder Team, Gobber, and a group of 40 Berkians with heavy weapons. When the Berserkers decided to launch a landing there, they would be facing one of the strongest defence force in the whole archipelago.

"Trinianka, where were you in the morning? You were supposed to be working on the bows and arrows," Elise yelled at her friend Trinianka as they flew above the forest.

"Oh, I was chatting with my friend and lost track of time," Trinianka replied quickly, and she actually bristled a bit, but Elise didn't see that, "So what did you guys do?"

"Under Hiccup's orders, we built a small moat between the edge of the forest and the ocean," Elise explained, but she turned serious again, "In the morning we had a lot of fun, and I've never seen you missing anything like that before. Are you sure you just lost track of your time?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Let's go back to the ground, this area is good enough for defence."

"All right," Elise replied.

As the two dragons descended to the ground, Elise gave a suspectful glance to her friend.

* * *

At night, when everyone finished their meal, Hiccup gathered all of the Berkians to the Great Hall. The hall became quieter and emptier after the previous battle which they lost almost one third of their populations.

Hiccup stood in front of his tribe with Gobber and Astrid on his side while the Berkians silently watching their chief. At one point, nobody had said a word. Hiccup didn't know how to begin his speech, so he started with running his hands through his messy hair.

"Just say what's in your mind, babe. It's all right, we will still support you if you mess it up," Astrid put her left hand gently on Hiccup's shoulder.

"Ok," Hiccup took a deep breath. His father was trying to prepare him for something like this, standing in front of the crowd and giving speeches. Usually the Vikings didn't care about their appearances during the speech, but they couldn't give the wrong idea to their people.

"Years ago, when we killed the Berserker's former chief Oswald, it seemed that we won that war, but we still lived in fear towards the Berserkers. We tried to annihilate them but failed. Today, even though we had lost a lot of our tribesmen during this conflict, but we still held our rank," Hiccup said in front of the crowd, his voice projected across the hall.

"So what are you trying to say?" a Berkians in the crowd said.

"I was saying…" Hiccup paused suddenly, his throat throbbed. He didn't really know what to say to his people. He prepared and practiced his speech in front of Astrid for a number of times, and he came up with all of the reassuring words and empowering phrases that could cheer up the Berkians even more. But right now he suddenly felt that those words were absurd and staid.

He remembered that during the battle when he tried to save a Berkians who got shot in the chest, and he remembered when he was watching his father die in front of him.

"I was saying that no matter what happened before, tomorrow we fight the enemy that is at our door, and tomorrow we end the pressure and fear that the Berserkers put on us for years!" Hiccup yelled at the top of his voice.

The Berkians were first bristled at their chief's performance. They had never seen Hiccup yelling like a feral and wild animal, and in their opinion Hiccup was a gentle and quiet person, but right now he was more like an angry dragon.

"May the gods be with us!" Gobber cried. His supportive voice broke the silence in the Great Hall.

The Berkians hurrahed and huzzahed and almost roared at the top of their voices, and suddenly the Great Hall was filled with over-excited Vikings. The dragons which were waiting outside were stunned by the drastic sound change and turned their heads toward the door of the Hall with curious or even fear on their faces.

Even though Hiccup's speech wasn't the greatest pre-battle speech that these Berkians had heard, they were again reached the highest morale after the death of their tribe members and even family members. Also, the Berkians didn't really care about whether Hiccup wanted to give a speech or not. They would've still throw an energized pre-battle party anyway, and Hiccup's short speech actually raised the invigorated atmosphere on the Island of Berk to a new level.

* * *

"That was great! Babe, you really did a marvelous job," Astrid said as she and Hiccup sat on the top of the cliffs just like the night before the first battle. Hiccup sat behind Astrid and surrounded her waist with his arms in order to pull her closer to himself.

Astrid sat between Hiccup's legs and leaned her body against Hiccup's, so that she could worm herself in the cold temperature and rest her head on his chest. Hiccup ran his left hand through Astrid's hair and gently massaged her scalp. They didn't bring their dragons with them because they didn't want two creatures disturbing their alone times.

"I didn't really say anything, just one meaningless sentence," Hiccup chuckled.

"What do you mean by meaningless?" Astrid was surprised, "I know your speech was short… and maybe a little bit weird, but look at impact you gave to the Berkians. I bet right now they are too self-confident that I'm afraid they'll get cocky during future battles."

"Thank you, milady," after a long pause, Hiccup said, followed by a kiss on Astrid's cheek.

"Thank me what?"

"For supporting me during the toughest time period."

"Don't be," Astrid smiled, "Wives always support their husbands."

It took Hiccup a few seconds to realise what Astrid had said. Did she mean that she would marry me? Hiccup thought.

Before he could think of anything else, a low crack sound came from the small spruce forest behind them, just like someone had stepped on a tree branch. Astrid and Hiccup stopped talking and listened. A couple of seconds later, another branch cracking sound followed.

"Maybe just a Terrible Terror," Hiccup said, "THose guys like to wandering in the woods."

Astrid turned her head towards the cedars, but they didn't bring a torch with them, and the moonlight wasn't bright enough for her to see what was among the spruces clearly. She reached her hand for her axe and stood up from the ground.

"Sounds like someone is walking through the woods," Astrid whispered.

Just as Astrid finished her sentence, they could hear someone was talking quietly in the forest. The voice was very low, and seemed like the speaker was trying to be stealthy.

"Come on." Astrid and Hiccup walked slowly toward the edge of the forest and hid behind some clusters where they could hear the unidentified talking clearer.

./.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\.

" _I will keep the forces away from …, and maybe I'm able to drive their attentions away more."_

" _Right, we will send a …. to the coast line, and we will land three divisions on…"_

" _Maybe I can create more disturbances."_

" _Do your best, but your safety should be priority one…"_

" _I'll keep that in mind… Right now I'm safe enough."_

" _If possible, kill…"_

" _I will."_

" _And after the war, you can go home. Your family misses you a lot."_

" _Tell them that I will come back alive."_

" _Be safe."_

./.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\.

Hiccup raised his head from the clusters to find the two speakers, but nothing remained there.

"I think they are gone," Hiccup said.

"That was definitely one male and one female, and I believe that that wasn't a midnight _date_ ," Astrid replied as she scouted into the woods.

"They talked about killing someone," Hiccup added.

"Right, but I didn't hear the name."

"The problem is who were those two."

* * *

Hours later, on the Berserker's island.

When the sun presented itself from the horizon, a small boat sailed quickly into the harbor. Comparing to the giant battleships in the harbor as well, this small boat was more like a Terrible Terror in front of a Deadly Nadder.

Dagur was standing on the dock waiting for the approaching boat. The boat carried three Berserkers. His assistant Savage and two soldiers who were paddling.

"That was a quick one," Savage commented as he landed on the dock beside Dagur.

"How was the trip?" Dagur asked.

"We avoided their patrol when we went in, and I met with her in the spruce forest," Savage said, "I gave her all the instructions, and she said she will kill our target."

"Great, that means Berk will eventually fall," Dagur punched his right palm with his left hand, "And the Haddock family will come to an end, hopefully."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

After another day of work, Toothless almost had to carry Hiccup's exhausted body back to his house at midnight. Hiccup laid face down on the saddle and dangled his hands and legs beside his dragon as Toothless walked back from the Great Hall. Hiccup knew that he could walk, but he was just too tired and decided to be lazy.

"Toothless… thanks, bud," when they arrived, Hiccup lifted himself up and jumped off the saddle, "You can go and do whatever you want now."

After licked his rider's palm, Toothless rushed off to find Stormfly and start their hide-and-seek game. Hiccup watched Toothless leave while he wiped his palm on his shirt to remove the Night Fury's sticky and clammy saliva.

Today he spent most of the time on coastal defense by the cliffs and in front of the village. According to their prediction, Dagur was most likely to directly rush the village, so he could seize the most important part of the island quickly, and in order to do that, he had to break Berkian defense of the village. Hiccup didn't know when Berserkers would launch their attack, so instead of spending times on paperwork, he and Toothless also engaged in the physical works of constructing walls, forts, and weapons.

The Riders were searching for boulders, crags, and similar materials that could be made into obstacles along the coastline to prevent ships from coming too close, and Hiccup and Toothless would carry the materials to the designed positions. Each boulder could be as heavy as ten sheep.

Gobber was leading a group of Berkians forging weapons and assembling new catapults. Every time when Hiccup walked into the forge, Hiccup thought he would be caught on fire because of the high temperature.

After 12 hours of constructing the coastal wall and building weapons, Hiccup was totally worn out. He lied on the beach like a dead dog and tried to use the sunlight to recover his strengths. His knees and legs were aching, and his hands were covered by scratches created by the sharp edges of rocks or woods. After all of these, he still had to take care of the Nadder Team who was responsible for the defense in the forest and the far side of the island.

Even though Hiccup predicted that the possibility of Dagur launching an attack at Raven Point was low, he still didn't want to take the chances. The Nadder Team completed their assignments by creating twelve fire positions that could cover the whole forest and a moat filled with small but poisonous dragons between the forest and the beach. Each position had three crossbows, three catapults, a group of archers, and a group of infantries. If the Berserkers decided to land at the far side of the island, they had to cross the moat while facing the poisonous dragons that could kill a Viking with one bite, and after that they would encounter a forest full of elite Berkians and the Nadder Team.

Hiccup signed at his recollections of his day as he opened the creaky door of his hut.

"Whoah! For the love of Odin! Astrid, don't scare me like that," Hiccup shouted with trepidation as an energetic blonde jumped in front of him, "and why are you here?"

"Because I have nowhere to go," Astrid replied while she crossed her arms as if she was upset, "What, you don't want me staying here? I can leave."

"No no no! I was just… I mean I'm glad that you are here… and … " Hiccup clarified himself shyly and in a hurry.

Astrid chuckled at Hiccup's reaction. She grabbed her boyfriend slash chief's shirt and pulled him into the room while she slammed the door shut with her right foot.

"Now you remember to close the door," Hiccup chuckled. He put his left arm around Astrid's tender waist and pulled her against his body. The

Before, when Astrid continuously came over to his hut to spend the night, and usually not just looking for a bed, she seldom closed the door when she came in. Hiccup believed Astrid was too busy undressing herself and Hiccup so she forgot to close the door.

"Because I have a special plan for tonight, chief," Astrid whispered obscenely while giving Hiccup a leer. Before Hiccup could reply, she hungrily covered Hiccup's mouth with her own. Her tongue explored across the chief's mouth and tangled up with another needy tongue.

* * *

As sunlight descended onto the Island of Berk and lightened the world, Astrid opened her eyes. Her vision adjusted quickly so that she could see the environment around her. She was in Hiccup's room, the room which the duo usually stayed in during the night. The wall was covered by Hiccup's sketches and drawings that he made throughout the years.

Astrid stretched herself under the blanket made by fur. This blanket was big enough to cover two people and could keep them warm during the cold Scandinavian nights even when they were naked. She tried to recall what happened last night. Last night's memories were unclear and ambiguous. She couldn't grasp what occurred on this bed, only the pleasure that she gained remained in her memory and body.

The only scene that she could recall was when Hiccup asked her "are you sure about this?", and she undoubtedly replied "yes". Then the rest was in the hands of the gods.

The blanket trembled minutely signaling that another Viking had woken up. Astrid turned herself towards Hiccup and pressed her naked body into his as her hands traced the scars he received from years of forging and dragon training.

"Mmmm…"Hiccup groaned as the unexpected morning welcome struck him.

"Morning, babe," Astrid whispered by Hiccup and gently bit the sensitive spot behind Hiccup's ear.

The sensations of Astrid's teeth and lips were transported by the nerves and into Hiccup's brain, causing the young chief to shiver besides the blonde.

"Astrid… It's not the time..." Hiccup tried hopelessly to use his hand to block Astrid's head.

Astrid straddled Hiccup and pinned his wrists above his head, and seduced the boy with her naked body. Hiccup, whose brain was in turmoil due to his sleepiness, wriggled beneath the strong blonde.

"Common, Hiccup, we can relax today. Unload the stress and… have some fun with each other," Astrid's mouth was just an inch above Hiccup's and she could feel his warm breath. "The Berserkers won't attack us today."

Hiccup, regaining some of his consciousness, lifted his head up and kissed slowly on her lips. "All right, you win Milady," Hiccup smiled. "How about let's get up and take a morning flight, for fun?"

"I rather have some fun _here_."

"Last night wasn't enough to satisfy milady?"

"Not even close," Astrid smirked as her hand trailed down Hiccup's belly towards his groin.

"Then I'll give you something to remember," Hiccup replied as he pulled Astrid back to the bed and rolled on top of her.

* * *

"After two weeks and those Berserkers are still doing nothing," Fishlegs murmured as he and Meatlug were patrolling around the sea. "What do you say?"

Tired by the flight, the Gronckle growled at his rider. Meatlug shook her head, trying to prevent herself from sleeping during flying. Meatlug knew that she didn't have the "superpower" to fly while sleeping, but she knew which dragon could. Grump, Gobber's dragon, could fell asleep during almost any circumstances, even flying. Sometimes Meatlug was jealous about Grump, so she tried to at least close her eyes while flying, but she received nothing but bumping into a wooden shack.

"I know, girl," Fishlegs reassured his dragon and threw a piece of bauxite into Meatlug's mouth. "This won't take so long. We'll just gonna reach every statue and head back, and then… we can enjoy some silicates for a snack."

The word "silicates" empowered Meatlug. Excited by the snack, she grunted and flew faster.

Reaching the furthest Viking statue standing in the sea, a group of brown dots on sea surface came into Fishlegs's view. A flock of sea dragons, maybe some Scauldrons, Fishlegs thought as he pulled out his spyglass that Hiccup gave to him.

Through the spyglass, Fishlegs could see a whole fleet of armed ships. Formed in an organized formation, the fleet traveled steadily. The fleet was formed by at least five dozens of large iron ships. Fishlegs's hands trembled with fear.

"The Berserkers!" Fishlegs yelled.

He couldn't think of any other tribes in the Archipelago that had a good reason, and had the power, to send that many ships to Berk. Also, the Skrill on the sail couldn't be more recognizable. A skinny, short man stood on the deck of the flagship.

"Common Meatlug," Fishlegs said to his dragon. "We have to go back and warn the others!"


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

"Hiccup! Are you in there? Hiccup?" after Meatlug landed on Berk, Fishlegs dashed to Hiccup's hut and tried to report the incoming Berserker fleet to his chief. His helmet almost fell off from his head.

For some reasons, Hiccup was supposed to be in the Great Hall or flying with Toothless, but neither took place during this early morning. According to what the twins told him, the twins heard some loud but attention-absorbing moaning and groaning coming out of Hiccup's hut as they walked pass while Fishlegs was on patrol.

"I believe Sir Haddock is working out with an Astrid Hofferson," Tuffnut replied as he pointed at Hiccup's hut. "You know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Uhh... hang on Fishlegs. Give me a minute," Hiccup's voice was followed by the sound of the bed creaking and someone rushing for clothing.

"This is urgent!" Fishlegs knocked on the wooden door impatiently.

"What's urgent?" Snotlout asked as he paced to the side of Fishlegs, yawning and stretching himself.

"The Berserkers, they are here!"

"Don't worry, Fish-face. I'll take care of this," Snotlout patted on his friend's back. "I'll break down this door and make my way into your hut if you don't answer the door in three seconds."

Fishlegs knew something like that would happen. According to Snotlout's personality, Fishlegs bet that the Snot was using "I just want to help" as a cover in order to romp around and tease Hiccup and Astrid instead of transferring the information.

"Snotlout!" Hiccup warned.

"Three… Two… One… Too late," Snotlout shouted as he charged towards the door.

The wooden door was nothing more like a piece of paper to Snotlout. He smashed the door open like a battle ram, splinters fanned out in the room.

"I'm here by the name of Thor to… oh," Before finishing his sentence, the view of Hiccup and Astrid naked in bed came into view. "Oh well, sorry to interrupt your peaceful time together."

"Thank you, Snotlout. That was very helpful!" Hiccup shouted angrily and ironically, pointing at Snotlout and his dismembered door. "I told you to give us a minute."

"I just want to see what's going on, and besides…"Snotlout chortled and turned his head at Fishlegs. "Fish-face said that he has an urgent something for you."

Astrid hurried to cover her body with the blanket and moved behind Hiccup. Using Hiccup as a cover, she gave Snotlout a death glare which Snotlout was too familiar with.

"Oookay, you win," Snotlout relented, he did not want Astrid to throw her axe at him. "Anyway, the Berserkers are here."

"The who is here?" Hiccup scratched his messy and tangled hair due to Astrid was digging her hand into his hair the whole time.

"Uh, the Berserkers?"

"Right," Still frustrated of Snotlout's action, Hiccup grabbed his clothes that got thrown to the ground and put them on and helped Astrid to get dressed.

"You... are not worried?" Snotlout was bewildered by Hiccup's calm reaction.

"Fishlegs, how much time do we have?" Hiccup asked while he and Astrid rushed for their clothes and weapons.

"They are heading for the harbor, where we concentrated most of the defenses. I'll say, maybe ten minutes, top," Fishlegs answered.

"Ready the coastline defense, I want everyone to be in position when I get there. Tell Raven Point defense to do not engage. We can't leave any part of this island unguarded," Hiccup ordered as he picked up his sword and headed out with Astrid carrying her axe following behind him.

"Are we just going to stay here and do nothing?" Trinianka shouted.

The Nadder team and some Berkians who were responsible for the defense of Raven Point. They turned their head toward the village, flames, and smoke could easily be seen across the island. Explosions destroyed the anti-landing traps on the beach. Standing at the edge of the forest, the Nadder team was facing an empty and tranquil sea on the other side of the island.

"No, stay here. Hiccup told us to not engage with the fight," Elise warned her friend.

"You mean we are going to sit here and watch them bleed?"

"We are not sure that whether they are winning or losing, but our order is to hold Raven Point," Xerxianna pointed out.

"All right, where is Gobber? He should be with us."

"He was consulting with some elders last night. I heard some news that they had argued all night," a Berkians said.

"They are just launching flaming arrows and boulders, and they are not even trying to land!" Fishlegs shouted as he ducked down to avoid an arrow.

The Berserker ships stopped in front of the coast and formed into a line along the coast so that every ship could use all of their weapons. Catapults, crossbows, ballistae opened fire on the village. Their heavy weapons had a longer range than Berk's defense weapons, so the Berserkers didn't need to worry about getting themselves hit.

Some Berkians boarded their ships and tried to rush the Berserkers, but arrows and boulders eliminated them and forced the remaining Berkians to retreat. Houses were ignited by flaming arrows and some coastal walls were broken down by boulders.

"Hiccup! Our weapons can't reach the Berserkers!" Spitelout yelled.

Hiccup ran his hands through his hair, trying to come up with a new plan. The catapults that the Raven Point garrison had had a longer range, but he did not want to take the risk of leaving their back undefended.

"Riders, we are going to take them out by dragons!" Climbing onto Toothless's saddle, Hiccup gave the order to other Dragon Riders.

"Yeah! it's ass-kicking time!" Tuffnut shouted.

Meanwhile, on the deck of one of the ships, Irizan watched the five dragons ascended into the air and headed toward his ships.

"Incoming dragon Riders!" An archer warned.

Irizan smiled and then whistled at the moment when Toothless was preparing for his first plasma blast. Five Skrills with bright lightning bolts flashing running across their scales were released from their cages. Lightenings appeared from the clouds as they screeched. They flapped their wings and flew toward the Riders. Five lightning bolts were shot from their mouths, and one of them struck Hookfang's left wing. The explosion threw Snotlout down from the saddle.

"Rider going down!" As he waved his hands in the air, Snotlout dropped down toward the sea. "Hookfang! Are you ok?"

Hookfang did not respond to his rider. His left wing caught on fire by the lightning bolt. The red Monstrous Nightmare circled above the ships, flapping his wings with nervousness, and uncontrollably shot multiple fires from his mouth.

"We got companies!" Astrid and Stormfly barrel-rolled as another lightning bolt flew pass them. "Watch out for the Skrills!"

"Very helpful, A," Ruffnut commented sarcastically. "We can all recognize that type of dragon."

"We need to take down those Skrills as well. Otherwise, we are all gonna die!" Fishlegs shivered. "You know how brutal the Skrills could become."

Hiccup quickly searched through his mind. This situation was totally out of control. He didn't understand why a bunch of Skrills would be fighting for the Berserkers. The Skrills were one of the strongest dragon species in the Archipelago, and the last time when hiccup encountered one was a couple of years ago. Right now he already forgot how to deal with these lightening-riding dragons.


End file.
